UALR gains administration scholarship
University of Arkansas at Little Rock students looking for careers in public administration could receive additional financial aid courtesy of a new endowed scholarship.
Judy Thompson, widow of John (Jack) T. Meriwether, has made a gift of $110,000 to create the John Thompson (Jack) Meriwether Endowed Scholarship in memory of her husband, who died in 2013, according to Angie Faller, UALR news director. Meriwether, a former Little Rock city manager and higher education advocate, interned at the city manager’s office in Little Rock before receiving a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas.
In addition to being city manager in Little Rock, he had the same job in Texarkana, and later Meriwether worked to secure $120 million from the federal government to support higher education in Arkansas, obtaining a Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation grant to study ways in which government aid might improve research and development in Arkansas universities, according to Faller. The scholarship will help cover education-related expenses for part or full-time graduate students — selected based on financial need and/or merit — in the Master of Public Administration program in the School of Public Affairs.
“We are grateful to Mrs. Thompson for creating a student scholarship that allows UA Little Rock to honor Mr. Meriwether’s long-term commitment to education in the state of Arkansas,” Sarah Beth Estes, dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education, said in a news release from the university.
“I think Jack would be very pleased and would feel like this scholarship is paying it forward,” Thompson said in the news release. He first mentioned possibly starting a scholarship at UALR a quarter-century ago, as he was “very appreciative of the jobs he had.”
“He loved being city manager,” Thompson added. “The City of Little Rock helped him get his master’s degree, and now he’s helping other people get their master’s degree with this scholarship.”
Gov. Dale Bumpers appointed him chairman of the Governor’s Task Force on Education in 1974 — several recommendations of the committee later approved by the state legislature led to various education reforms, from a state-supported kindergarten program and free high school textbooks to expanding degree programs at state colleges and universities — and that “experience stayed with him,” Thompson said.
“In 1982, Jack was hired by the University of Arkansas System as vice president for university relations to lobby for a tax program specifically for a special school fund. He persuaded the Joint Budget Committee to give $50 million a year to the state’s colleges and universities.”
This endowed scholarship is the latest significant gift to UALR during its Centennial Campaign, which celebrates the university’s 100-year anniversary in 2027 and is the largest fundraising effort in university history. As of April 1, UALR has raised more than $169 million — the goal is to raise $250 million by 2027 — as part of the Centennial Campaign, and 150 new endowments have been created.