Arkansas State University

From Free net encyclopedia

Arkansas State University (ASU) is the second largest university in the State of Arkansas, located atop 800 acres on Crowley's Ridge at Jonesboro, Arkansas.

ASU also oversees three two-year community colleges: Arkansas State University - Beebe, Arkansas State University - Mountain Home, and Arkansas State University - Newport.

1 History
2 Degree Programs
3 The ASU System
4 Sports
5 Greek Life
6 External links

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History

ASU, as it is called today, was founded in Jonesboro in 1909 by the Arkansas Legislature as a regional agricultural training school. It began offering a two-year college program in 1918, then became First District Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1925. A four-year degree program was begun in 1930, then A & M College became Arkansas State College in 1933. The Arkansas Legislature elevated the college to university status and changed the name to Arkansas State University in 1967.

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Degree Programs

Master's degree graduate programs were initiated in 1955, and ASU began offering its first doctoral degree, in educational leadership, in the fall of 1992. A second doctoral program, in environmental science, was begun in the fall of 1997, and the doctoral program in heritage studies began in the fall of 2001. The doctoral program in the biomedical sciences kicked off in fall 2005.

Today, the institution has more than 55,000 alumni. Programs at the specialist's, master's, bachelor's and associate's degree levels are available through the various colleges: Agriculture, Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Nursing and Health Professions, Sciences and Mathematics, and University College.

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The ASU System

Image:ASUFowler Center.jpg The ASU system includes campuses in Jonesboro (Craighead County), which offers degree programs through the doctoral level; Beebe (White County), Mountain Home (Baxter County), and Newport (Jackson County), where associate degree programs are offered; and at Heber Springs, Marked Tree, and Searcy. Arkansas State University-Beebe became part of the ASU system in 1955. It associated with White River Vo-Tech at Newport in 1992; that campus has attained stand-alone status and is now Arkansas State University-Newport. The Mountain Home campus officially became ASU-Mountain Home on July 1, 1995. Delta Technical Institute at Marked Tree merged with ASU and became Arkansas State University Technical Center on July 1, 2001. A new campus is being built for ASU-Heber Springs, which operates as a sister campus of ASU-Beebe. Foothills Technical Institute at Searcy was merged with ASU-Beebe on July 1, 2003, and is now ASU-Searcy, a technical institute of ASU-Beebe.

ASU offers bachelor's degree programs, master's degree programs and upper level courses through ASU degree centers at ASU-Beebe, ASU-Mountain Home, and three other cities -- Blytheville, Forrest City, and West Memphis -- where partnership agreements have been established in cooperation with the local community colleges. ASU also operates an instructional site at nearby Paragould in Greene County.

Enrollment Growth ASU has grown rapidly over the past 20 years; the Jonesboro campus enrollment in the fall of 1981 was 7,448; five years later it was 8,526, and by 1991 it had grown to 9,717. Five years ago the fall enrollment at Jonesboro stood at 10,309. Today, because of the close partnerships between the campuses, ASU reports a combined enrollment for its system of campuses. Total system enrollment in the fall of 2004 was 16,497.

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Sports

Image:ASUcommunication.jpg As a member of the Southland Conference in 1970, Arkansas State was the small college football national champion. The Indians defeated Central Missouri State University in the Pecan Bowl, held in Arlington, Texas to secure the championship and complete an undefeated season, 11-0. During the 2005 football season, Arkansas State was the representitive of the Sun Belt Conference at the New Orleans Bowl and this was their first bowl game since the trip to the Pecan Bowl in 1970. They were defeated by the University of Southern Mississippi.

The school is affiliated with the Sun Belt Conference in sports and maintains NCAA I-A Division programs in the major sports. The school sports teams are nicknamed "Indians" in honor of the Osage Nation that inhabited the area until the 1800s. Due to the NCAA ruling of prohibiting the use of Native American names in its leagues, ASU, along with a number of other universities are in the midst of changing their mascot.[1][2]

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Greek Life

Approximately 15% of ASU's students are members of one of the 21 Greek organizations located on the campus. Most other student organizations, including the Student Government Association, the Student Activities Board, and the Student Orientation Staff, are led and comprised mainly of Greek students. These groups are dedicated to academics and community service. The All-Greek GPA is consistently higher than the All-ASU GPA. The organizations also devote thousands of man-hours and dollars to local charities each year.

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