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TRUSTEES APPROVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM AT UAM

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, April 18, 2009 12:43 AM CDT

Monticello — The University of Arkansas at Monticello plans to begin offering a bachelor of arts in modern languages degree program in August, and it was approved by the UA board of trustees at a special meeting Friday morning on the UAM campus.

The UA board was also notified at the Friday meeting that the school has proposed adding a “biochemistry option” to its bachelor of science in chemistry degree program.

The modern languages degree program will offer a foreign language major that will require study of both Spanish and French with supportive instruction in Latin and the option of also taking Japanese or German courses. University of Arkansas System President Alan Sugg reported that Monticello area businesses were surveyed and many expressed an increased need for hiring employees with foreign language skills.

Sugg reported the proposed biochemistry option would more closely align a student’s chemistry education with the requirements of some segments of industry and health sciences. Adding the option would require no extra funding since the necessary faculty and other resources are already in place, Sugg stated.

Board Chairman Dr. Tim Hunt said another special board meeting would be scheduled for May at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff to allow trustees to learn more about UAPB’s aquaculture/fisheries department and its preparations for establishing an aquaculture doctoral program.

“We’ve been working on this for about 10 years now,” said Dr. Carole Engle, UAPB’s Aquaculture/Fisheries Center director. “It is important to understand that we do not need new funding. I understand we are enduring tough economic times, but we do not need new funding to start this program. We’ve been adding faculty for the last 10 to 15 years, and we’ve been building facilities for the last 20 years. We have the finances that we need.”

Engle said she receives e-mails from students each week who are seeking a Ph.D. aquaculture program, but those students must leave the state to obtain the degrees.

UAPB Chancellor Dr. Lawrence A. Davis Jr. said UAPB is not yet authorized to offer the Ph.D. program and needs an action of the board to proceed with its plans.

“We have committed ourselves to support that program, and we have developed it to a level that is above what we have anticipated,” Davis said. “Our program now is world class.”

Authorized by Act 100 of 1909 in the state legislature, UAM is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. UAM Chancellor Jack Lassiter shared a few highlights of the university’s history with board members before the meeting.

The first day of class was held Sept. 14, 1910, he said, and in the school’s early days, students did not pay tuition, rather they worked various agricultural jobs around campus such as milking cows in the school’s dairy barn.

The school’s Boll Weevil football team defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 20-12 on Oct. 9, 1943, Lassiter said. The Razorbacks provided the game field and uniforms for the Boll Weevils.

A group of students performed a re-enactment of 1909 House of Representatives dialogue on the issue of creating what would become UAM and three other agricultural schools in the state.

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