President’s house near finish at SAU

4,500-square-foot project to cost $1.5M

MAGNOLIA — After more than 18 months, construction on a new, on-campus president’s house at Southern Arkansas University is nearing completion.

“It’s been the Board’s vision to have the president located back on campus, said David Nelson, vice chairman of the SAU board of trustees, in an email sent to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette through a university spokesman. “Therefore, the Board made the decision to build the president’s house. It’s been nearly three years in the making since the project started, with me being on the Board and the Committee to help plan the project.

“We feel having the president back on campus will be a benefit not only to the campus, but to the community as well.”

Most universities provide a house for their presidents to live in. University-provided houses for presidents not only accommodate the president and family but are large enough for dinner parties, receptions and other events affiliated with the university.

The project is expected to cost $1,490,000, said Aaron Street, director of creative services at SAU.

With the exception of $1,200 in historic cedar beams donated by a local family, the president’s house is being supported with public funds that the university has been planning since its current president, Trey Berry, became president in July 2015, Street said.

The 4,500-square-foot house is on a 4-acre tract of land across the street from Overstreet Hall, the university’s primary administrative building. The square footage was determined by a committee made up of faculty and staff members, an SAU trustee, an SAU student and the project architect who took into consideration the many uses of the house, Street said. The address will be 101 E. University St. in Magnolia.

One-fifth of the new house is a guest suite, according to the university. About 75 percent of the square footage of the new house is intended for shared use between the president’s family and guests.

Berry and his family should be able to move in by mid- to late November, Nelson said.

The university has been without a dedicated on-campus presidential house since Berry’s immediate predecessor, David Rankin, had decided to live in his longtime rural home just outside of Magnolia instead of moving into the previous campus house. That campus house has since been converted into the Alumni Center at Butler Circle.