‘Important role’
Community college advocate addresses NPC’s board of trustees
Community colleges play an important role in their communities, according to the executive director of Arkansas Community Colleges.
“I know what community colleges mean to people back home, and I know the support that you have amongst your community leaders and your legislative leaders, and it’s in part my role to see that that support translates to the state Capitol,” Bill Stovall told the regular monthly meeting of the National Park College Board of Trustees on Feb. 28.
“Sometimes it’s difficult. There’s a lot of noise in that building. I am the advocate of Arkansas Community Colleges at the Capitol and other legislative proceedings,” Stovall told the board.
Stovall has been a “tremendous advocate for community colleges and has done an admirable job,” board Chairman Forrest Spicher said. “I’ve seen him in the state Capitol; he knows his way around and he is a friend to our college and all the others in the state of Arkansas.”
According to Stovall, Arkansas Community Colleges was formed in 1989 primarily as a professional development association for faculty and staff. Later, by way of sponsorships of the association’s annual conferences, presidents and chancellors of the state’s community colleges decided the organization could be more than a professional development association.
“They solicited applications and they hired Dr. Ed Franklin, one of your committee members here today now in his retirement,” he said. “From 1997 to 2013, along the way the association had some growing pains.”
Along with professional development opportunities, the association offers the Center for Workforce and Center for Student Success. These centers focus on finding creative ways to help students succeed.
Spicher asked Stovall for his impression of the
views that the state House and Senate have of higher education, and more specifically how they view that leverage toward economic development in the Hot Springs area and others around the state. Stovall said the college has good representation in the House and Senate, but more work needs to be done.
“Higher education, whether in Arkansas or in any other state, is typically on most legislators’ top five list,” he said. “The problem is when they get in session, they only get time to get around to about three of them. So we typically don’t get to the top of the issue list.
“The House and Senate do have great appreciation for community colleges. I only know of one or two members out of 135 that aren’t a robust supporter of the community colleges. But getting that to translate up to the state is the complicated part.”
The reason, he said, is because in 1991 legislation was passed that transformed 13 vocational-technical schools into community and technical college environments.
“There was a big push to invest in whatever rigor would be necessary to accomplish an academic status in a previously owned university world,” he said. “Just like in most things with government you go chasing something and you chase it too far.”
Stovall said community colleges should be thought of as economic development engines when they often are not.
“We have a role to play, I need to communicate it better at the Capitol, but for the most part when each community college has done their job with their legislative delegation in educating them about all the different spaces that you all are in it makes my job a lot easier,” he said. “You’ve got good representation in the House and in the Senate, and they also are in positions to influence outcomes to make them better than what maybe they might otherwise be.”
NPC President John Hogan said the college, and others in the state, cannot “get along without” Stovall.
“He’s the navigator at the state House,” Hogan said. “He knows what the formal issues are and the informal issues. He is very forthcoming with his advice to us which you all benefit from.
“As opposed to my previous stops, our investment in an association that coordinates 21 other community colleges and also our messaging with the state House, we have a uniquely strong system of getting that done. I know that’s due in no small part to Bill’s leadership.”