A local construction company has pledged $50,000 to go toward improvements to the construction program at UA Little Rock.
Representatives from Kinco Constructors were on campus Monday to dedicate the new drawings and specifications lab named in the company’s honor.
Doug Wasson, president and CEO of Kinco Constructors, said he hopes it will help maintain a steady pipeline of graduates to help staff his and other construction businesses in the region.
“It really, really does serve a need… to be able to have something that’s local to the industry and the majority of the construction companies that serve Arkansas, having something close here and serving that need, and it’s great,” Wasson said.
Wasson says the company’s gift of $50,000 to UA Little Rock will help fund the construction program over the next five years. Lloyd Webre, UA Little Rock’s Director of Development, said aside from technical improvements to the classroom, the space also has a fresh new look.
“I think it puts a pep in everyone’s step,” he said. “When you’re looking as a prospective student of places to go, you want to go take a tour of a campus that has the nicest spaces in which to learn. And then for the existing students, it shows our administration cares about them.”
The improvements are part of the UA Little Rock Centennial Campaign, which to date has raised about $170 million in donations. Webre said the Department of Construction Management and Civil Construction Engineering continues to be one of the school’s “standard-bearing” programs.
“It provides a significant number of employees to the workforce upon graduation, it boasts of 100% job placement for the students, so it’s very important to the industry, so much so that this program was founded back in the early ‘90s because of a request from the industry,” he said.
Webre says the improvements are especially important as drawing and specifications is one of the first classes incoming construction management students take at UA Little Rock.
KUAR and KLRE are housed on the campus of UA Little Rock but maintain editorial independence.
