About North Arkansas College
A comprehensive, public two-year college, North Arkansas College provides a variety of educational opportunities to the citizens of Boone, Carroll, Marion, Searcy, Newton, and Madison counties, its service area in northern Arkansas. A conservative estimate of North Arkansas College’s annual economic impact on its service area is over $80 million. This includes extra income earned by area residents because they attended Northark ($69.3 million, based on a study by CC Benefits, Inc.), money spent by the college and its employees each year in the community ($9.2 million), and federal assistance to Northark students over and above the cost of tuition and books ($900,000 plus each semester).
Northark offers transfer and technical degree programs, one-year technical certificates, certificates of proficiency, customized business and industry training, adult basic education (GED) classes, and non-credit community education courses. The institution is especially proud of its leadership in the use of educational technology, in community outreach and partnerships, and in health education.
Information technology programs offered to students include Cisco, Microsoft, Adobe, and Comp TIA certification training, and degree programs in web and graphic design, software support, applied programming, network technology, and geographic information systems.
North Arkansas College is a charter member of ARKnet, Arkansas' higher education computer network. The college was among the first in the state to develop a web page; provide Internet access to all faculty, staff, and students; offer on-line courses; and become a regional training center for Cisco Systems. Faculty and students enjoy high speed, fiber optic, networked computer labs and classrooms in the John Paul Hammerschmidt Business and Conference Center. Northark has a fiber optic gigabit Ethernet backbone providing high-speed network access to each college workstation.
Using a fiber-optic interactive television system provided by Ozarks Unlimited Resources Educational Cooperative, North Arkansas College provides college classes to area high schools. Residents are also offered an opportunity to complete bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Development via ITV through the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Beginning in the fall semester of 2007, class schedules include more web courses and sections designed to allow students to customize their classes for either Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or Tuesdays and Thursdays to help minimize transportation costs for students.
Allied health students make up almost one-third of North Arkansas College graduates. The college offers career tracks for allied health students in Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN), Registered Nursing (RN), Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Radiologic Technology, Medical Laboratory Technology, Surgical Technology, and Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic.
In 2007, students will see the construction of new facilities for the College’s Allied Health Division. Plans are underway to build a 11,000-square-foot addition on the South campus. This space will house nursing labs and classrooms and the Medical Laboratory Technology and Surgical Technology programs.
Two-thirds of degree-seeking students at North Arkansas College during the fall semester of 2006 received need-based financial aid. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Northark students are female. Although most of the college’s students are 18-20 years old, the average age of Northark students is 26. Northark serves many students who are single parents or the first in their family to attend college.
North Arkansas College is the first institution in the state to be accepted as an AQIP institution. AQIP, the Academic Quality Improvement Program, is an alternative means of accreditation now offered by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. AQIP allows participating institutions to meet accreditation standards by developing and using processes which lead to continuous improvement.
North Arkansas College is an acknowledged leader in forming community partnerships and providing health education in northern Arkansas. The college partnered with North Arkansas Regional Medical Center (NARMC) in 1996, creating the North Arkansas Partnership for Health Education (NAPHE), an organization dedicated to professional and community health education. Beginning as a local partnership, NAPHE has expanded to a regional coalition with over 60 participants. With support from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, NAPHE now operates its programs as AHEC-NW at Harrison.
Traditional liberal arts students are very important at North Arkansas College. Northark enjoys an excellent relationship with area universities and provides the first two years of a baccalaureate degree in most majors. Occupational programs in accounting; administrative support; business management; collision repair technology; automotive service technology; computer aided design; construction equipment operation; crime scene investigation; industrial electronics; biomedical electronics; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; law enforcement administration; integrated systems technology; medical coding; medical transcription; network technology; software applications; truck driving; and welding are also available.
Through the spring semester of 2006, more than 54 students in John Brown University’s Advance Program had completed a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management after taking all of their classes at North Arkansas College. During the spring semester of 2002, Northark and Arkansas Tech formed a partnership that allows students to take courses which lead to selected ATU baccalaureate programs. Tech degrees available at Northark are Agriculture Business, Information Systems, Information Technology, Nursing and Early Childhood Education. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, also offers bachelor’s degree programs at Northark.
North Arkansas College has an Honors Program with special classes and facilities for outstanding students. A full range of student activities is available at North Arkansas College. Students have the opportunity to participate in drama, career and recreational organizations, athletic teams, and intramural competition.
Federal and state grants have provided North Arkansas College with several programs over the years, including additional advising opportunities for students through the Special Services, Talent Search, and Educational Opportunity Center programs. With its Learning Assistance Center, North Arkansas College is a leader in offering college preparatory courses that help prepare students to take transfer English and math classes. The college also offers tutoring in a number of academic areas.
North Arkansas College is one of two Arkansas community colleges selected recently to receive a federal Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education designated specifically for student success. The $399,932 award, which is renewable for a total of almost $2 million over five years, will be used to develop programs promoting student success. The grant announcement was made in fall of 2006 and will fund the addition of new innovative teaching strategies and technology such as smart classrooms to help students succeed.
PLATO, also a computerized instructional delivery system, provides the primary mode of instructional delivery in Technical Math I and II and Applied Algebra and Trigonometry. It is used to supplement instruction in developmental math and composition courses. PLATO also provides modules to support instruction in reading, science, and other disciplines, and it can help students prepare for the ACT, COMPASS, and Praxis exams.
Along with its services to traditional and non-traditional college students, North Arkansas College offers courses, seminars and workshops through its Community Education and Business-Industry programs. Credit and non-credit courses are designed to enhance job skills, provide personal enrichment, or be taken just for fun.
North Arkansas College houses one of the outstanding Adult Basic Education-GED programs in the state. An original recipient of a federal Right-to-Read grant, Northark’s ABE-GED program has served thousands of northern Arkansas adults by providing free tutoring in basic skills such as reading and math and with courses that prepare students to take the General Educational Development (GED) examination.
North Arkansas College makes its facilities available to non-profit groups for meetings and other activities. Each year more than 60 area groups conduct over 200 meetings at North Arkansas College. The college also sponsors academic and athletic camps and competitions.
During the 1999-2000 academic year, Northark started its John Paul Hammerschmidt Lecture Series. Dr. Jerry Linenger, a retired U.S. Navy Captain and NASA Astronaut whose mission aboard the Russian space station Mir was one of the most dramatic and dangerous in space history, delivered the first JPH Lecture Sept. 11, 1999. Each year the North Arkansas College Foundation sponsors JPH Lectures during the fall and spring semesters.
Building an indisputable history of bold leadership during its first decade, Northark committed itself to innovation and service by developing off-campus programs. Today, two of those off-campus programs are fully accredited Arkansas colleges, Arkansas State University-Mountain Home and NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. In 1993, Northark was a partner in another 'first' in Arkansas: North Arkansas Community College and Twin Lakes Technical College became the state's first community college-technical college union.
North Arkansas College is expanding to serve community needs. In 2005 the college purchased the former Regions Plaza in Harrison. In return for its $1.2 million investment, North Arkansas College now has a 65,000-square-foot building located on one full block near downtown Harrison. The deal also includes a parking lot at the corner of East Ridge and North Walnut.
Northark is in the final stages of plans to renovate the portion of the facility formerly housing Regions Bank, creating the L. E. ‘Gene” Durand Conference Center. The new facility will include several breakout rooms and a central meeting room large enough to host banquets and other community events. College programs already located in the tower section of the building include the Dr. Dan J. Hawkins Community Health Resource Center, Continuing and Community Education, Adult Education, and federal TRIO Programs. Finance and Administration, North Arkansas College Foundation, Institutional Advancement, Public Relations, and Microcomputer Services have also moved to the Center Campus. The North Arkansas Partnership for Health Education will eventually move to the downtown facility when its current lease expires.
A $1.1 million library and classroom construction project was completed by Northark in June of 1992, and the John Paul Hammerschmidt Business and Conference Center was opened in the summer of 1997 at a cost of about $1.8 million. The facility houses the college's information technology and business programs, and features a display of awards, photographs and other memorabilia from Harrison native Hammerschmidt's 26 years in Congress. The Bill Baker Amphitheatre, named after the college’s founding president, Dr. Bill Baker, was completed in the fall of 2000. The venue includes over 750 permanent chair-back seats and space for several thousand more spectators in lawn chairs and blankets on the hillside.
Dr. Jeffery R. Olson was selected March 2, 2001 as the second president of North Arkansas College. Dr. Olson came to North Arkansas College from Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in Orangeburg, S.C., where he served as president for six years. Previously, he was dean of occupational education at Coastal Carolina Community College from 1989 to 1991 and Vice President of Learning at the same institution from 1991 until 1995. Under Olson’s leadership Northark is focused on the economic development of its service area, working in partnership with the Harrison Chamber of Commerce and other area organizations to prepare area citizens for the job of the future.
Northark had an enrollment of 2,047 credit students during the fall semester of 2006 and a spring semester enrollment with 1,934 students in 2007. In recent years, the college reorganized its technical, business and information technology programs, established a Certification and Testing Center, and formed a new division of Business and Technical Programs. The Certification and Testing Center offers high end certifications from companies like Microsoft ®, CompTIA®, Adobe® and Macromedia®. Additionally, the center offers Automotive Service Excellence exams and Federal Aviation Administration exams.
The college’s Northark Technical Center, which serves area high school students with postsecondary occupational training, registered 131 students in the fall of 2006 and 110 in the spring of 2007. The program provides an opportunity for area high school juniors and seniors to enroll in a number of technical/vocational programs in the afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. These programs include Automotive Service Technology, Collision Repair Technology, Computer Aided Design, Construction Technology, Electronics Technology, Geographic Information Systems, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning, Integrated Systems Technology, Medical Professions Education, Network Technology, Restaurant Management, and Welding Technology. Students receive college credit for courses completed in these programs and many are able to complete one year Technical Certificates at the same time they graduate from high school.
Northark added three new Technical Certificates of Proficiency in 2006: Automotive Service Technology, Collision Repair Technology, and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. New Certificate programs include Computer Support Technician and Windows Development. Northark established a Digital Media Lab located in the South Campus Library. The lab is equipped with modern computers and peripheral equipment allowing students to create video, audio, web, and print media using the latest technology.
North Arkansas College has hosted two of the nation's last three presidents. President George Bush was at Northark in 1985 and again in 1997 to dedicate facilities named after his longtime friend John Paul Hammerschmidt. President Bill Clinton visited both campuses on several occasions as Governor of Arkansas.
For university transfer, workforce development, information technology, healthcare education, and cultural events, residents of northern Arkansas “Think Northark First.”