RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Tech University has voted to increase tuition by over 3 percent at its two campuses in Russellville and Ozark.
The university’s board of trustees made its decision Tuesday and also approved some fee increases that include $2.50 per semester credit hour for athletics, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The tuition for Russellville undergraduates will hike 3.2 percent from $219 per semester credit hour in 2016-17 to $226 next year. Graduate and doctoral tuition will rise from $274 per credit hour 2016-17 to $284 next year.
Tuition at the university’s Ozark campus, which offers a two-year program, will increase 3.4 percent from $118 per hour in 2016-17 to $122 next year.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Arkansas Tech President Robin Bowen said in a statement that the increases were “carefully and seriously considered as part of the budgeting process and again when they are presented to our Board of Trustees.”
The increases are part of a $161.1 million operating budget authorized by the board for the 2017-18 fiscal year.
“The additional revenue created by the increases approved by the board will be reinvested in our students in a manner consistent with our strategic plan and our focus on student success,” Bowen said.
In Arkansas, higher-education leaders are focusing on a new state funding method for public colleges and universities that is expected to start July 1, 2018. The state’s schools have become more reliant on tuition and fees as state appropriations have dropped.
Last week, University of Arkansas also approved its tuition and fee increases. Those increases range from just over 8 percent to nearly 2.75 percent.
Off-duty corrections worker robbed of uniform in Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Authorities say an off-duty prison employee was robbed of his uniforms, wallet and vehicle in Little Rock.
The employee was robbed Tuesday night in southwest Little Rock. A police report says two men approached the employee and took his wallet, necklace, shoes, cellphone, Department of Correction uniforms and a protective vest before driving off in his car.
Police say the vehicle was found later Tuesday outside an abandoned home in Little Rock. Police say the car was missing both passenger-side doors, its hood and its trunk lid. Police say the car had been set on fire, too.
No arrests have been announced.
New Arkansas VA office to aid local veterans
HOPE, Ark. (AP) — The new District 8 Veteran Service Office in Southwest Arkansas has opened its doors.
The plans for the office that opened in Hope on Tuesday for the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs was approved by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in June 2015.
Sarah Jones is the public affairs director for the department. She says the new district office aims to connect veterans and their families to private-public services at the local, state and federal level. Jones says it also will provide training, accreditation and day-to-day support to empower the county veteran service officers.
The Hope district office will serve Sevier, Hempstead and Howard counties among others.
The new office will be managed Jim Williams, a retired Army veteran with more than 20 years of active service.