Friday’s commencement ceremony for Southeast Arkansas College will be a little busier than last year’s.
The college will award 420 degrees and certificates for all graduates since July 1, 2024, at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, with the program beginning at 10 a.m. That’s an uptick of 59 from the spring 2024 commencement.
The diplomas will be presented to 170 students, according to school officials.
“Within a degree program, a student can obtain a credential, like a technical certificate,” said Tyrone Jackson, wrapping up his first year as the college’s president. “In addition to the associate degree, technical certificates and all of those are counted in the degree category.”
Jackson met with SEARK’s board Wednesday for their bimonthly meeting and annual retreat at the college’s welcome center. The board unanimously approved a $12,054,087 budget that accounts for a $5-per-credit tuition increase to $120 and a slight decrease in state general revenue by $53,550 to $5,301,408. The figures are based on an enrollment of 24,274 credit hours.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Jackson said the rise in credit tuition reflects the cost of doing business.
“It’s just the cost of doing business,” Jackson said. “We assessed the whole picture and we try to have minimal impact as far as fees are concerned,” he said. “We have to have slight increases to conduct daily operations.”
The board also approved a one-time, lump-sum cost-of-living-adjustment payment of $400 for staff members.
Donna Hunnicutt, SEARK’s vice president of instruction, said peer reviewers will visit the campus Aug. 26 to conduct a mock visit ahead of the Higher Learning Commission’s visit Nov. 3. Feedback from the mock visit will help college officials prepare their case to be removed from probation for violation of three HLC accreditation requirements by June 2026.
Hunnicutt indicated the college has focused on four criteria for accreditation: mission statement, transparency and governance, instruction and learning and administration and strategic planning.
“We actually addressed all of them, very consistently,” she said, adding she’d like for the mock team to “be exponentially harder” than it would on a regular visit.
Jackson expressed a desire for the college to acquire funds for a two- to three-story student union. Former school President Steven Bloomberg introduced the idea for a student union and residential center to be built together on campus in 2021, but by 2022 the plan was separated into two projects. A residential center primarily for the college’s student athletes opened 4 miles south of campus, across from the present-day Relyance Bank Athletic Complex, in 2023.
A joint student union-residence hall project was estimated between $37 million and $39 million in 2022. Jackson said a student union alone would cost an estimated $25 million.
“We are trying to get funds for that, but there is a part of the plan where when we acquire funds, we plan to build a facility on campus,” he said. “The college has the plans, but we don’t have the funding.”