Higher Education

A bill that would allow college-level student athletes in Arkansas to make money off of their name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness passed its first legislative hurdle on Tuesday.

The House Education Committee by a voice vote, with no dissenting votes heard, approved House Bill 1671, which would create the "Student-Athlete Publicity Rights Act."

A bill that would have widened an existing law regarding free speech on college campuses in Arkansas stalled Monday due to a lack of action. 

Senate Bill 191, which would have created the “Free Thought In Higher Education Act,” failed to advance the Arkansas Senate Education Committee when no member seconded a motion to pass the bill.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been awarded a $5.6 million grant to advance technology with the potential to regenerate bones. The funding from the U.S. Department of Defense goes toward work on an implantable medical device known as NuCress scaffold, which has been in development since 2006.

It holds the promise of helping people with what have been considered untreatable injuries experience bone regeneration in places where parts of a bone are missing. In particular, researchers say it could help people avoid having limbs amputated because of injuries.

Private colleges and universities in Arkansas are having to change their strategies for recruiting students amid a reduction in prospective students. A number of factors are forcing the schools to rethink their business plans and marketing. The top factor is simply that Americans are having fewer children.

Arkansas Business Editor Gwen Moritz wrote about that for a story in this week's issue:

A crowd of about 500 people gathered at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville Tuesday to protest the naming of a scholarship in honor of a former history professor who's been accused of Holocaust denial.

The protest, which white supremacists had threatened to attend, came after the school declined to remove the name of Michael Link from a scholarship fund named for himself and his mother. 

An Arkansas House committee has passed legislation allowing students who meet the requirements for state residency or have lived in Arkansas for a certain period of time to qualify for in-state tuition at a state-supported university.

In order to qualify, the person must be an Arkansas resident under current code or have lived in the state for three years at the time of applying for the college, and either graduated from a public or private high school in Arkansas or received the equivalent of a high school diploma in the state.

A bill that lifts restrictions on free speech policies by universities has passed the Senate Education Committee.

The bill would, among other things, eliminate free speech zones on university campuses and instead designate most outdoor areas of a campus as a place for members of a campus community to express themselves. According to the bill, a "campus community" consists of students, faculty, administrators, staff and invited guests of the university such as speakers.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock officially has a downtown space where visitors can learn about the university, attend occasional lectures and view a mural painted in 1935.

The university held its opening ceremony Wednesday afternoon, which featured speeches from UA Little Rock officials and the mayor.

UA Little Rock Chancellor Dr. Andrew Rogerson spoke on how since he began his tenure over two years ago, there was talk about the necessity of a downtown space, especially as the only four-year public research university in the city.