UA trustees OK $1.7 million for medical campus

A $1.7 million renovation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest campus in Fayetteville will support classrooms and lab space for students in a new occupational therapy program overseen jointly by UAMS and the University of Arkansas.

The University of Arkansas board unanimously approved the renovation Monday, spokesman Nate Hinkel said, along with a property purchase for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

The three-year, clinical doctorate occupational therapy program expects to enroll its first students in 2020, said Sherry Muir, the program director hired last year from Saint Louis University.

In explaining what therapists do, Muir said an occupation can be defined as “anything that a person needs, wants or is required to do in a day,” Occupational therapists might work with a young mother recovering from a stroke to care for her children, for example, Muir said.

Occupational therapists also work with children and the elderly in health care settings, schools and mental health facilities, among other places, Muir said.

At the UAMS Northwest campus, “we’re designing the space so that it’s very flexible, so that each space can be used for multiple purposes and also can be used inter-professionally,” Muir said.

The classroom and lab space will complement additional learning space under renovation at the UA campus, where students will train in an “old house” setting with narrow doors and a tight stairway, Muir said.

The UA “old house” facility is being remodeled with a budget of about $450,000, spokesman Steve Voorhies said. It will also house faculty offices.

Muir said there is a shortage of occupational therapists around the nation and in Arkansas. The University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas State University also have occupational therapy doctoral programs.

Trustees also approved a property purchase for the Arkansas School for Mathematics,

Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs.

Donnie Sewell, a spokesman for the public residential high school in Hot Springs, said the plan is to buy 1.76 acres adjacent to the campus and use a building on the property now for a later expansion of classroom facilities and arts instruction. The school has made an offer of $135,000 to purchase the property, according to documents provided by Sewell.

“The arts was added to the school’s mission in 2004,” Sewell said, but the school did not receive extra funding at that time. But the school has recently added a second arts education faculty member and also renovated former library space into an arts studio, Sewell said.

“We’re trying to expand our curriculum now. That space would allow us to have a larger dedicated art space,” Sewell said.