ASU, UA systems each get $500,000

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has awarded the state’s two university systems $500,000 each.

Hutchinson gave the Arkansas State University System state discretionary funds to help pay for an efficiency study that it is undertaking. The governor gave similar funding to the University of Arkansas System’s standalone online-only university, eVersity.

At the ASU System, the funds will go toward its $995,000 contract with Huron Consulting Group. The group is helping the system and its schools find ways to increase revenue, reduce costs and reallocate resources to prioritized projects, the system said. System officials expect the review — which will include a presentation of up to 50 opportunities, mostly focused on growing revenue — to be completed early this year.

The ASU System will use reserves to pay for the remainder of the Huron contract, it said.

The UA System will use its share of the discretionary funds to help market eVersity “at a level that allows [it] to reach sustainable enrollment levels” and to employ “the needed student-support staff to continue the model we have successfully built.”