Arkansas State University

Arkansas State University

Other names	A-State
Motto	Educate, Enhance, Enrich: e3
Type	Public
Established	1909
Endowment	$54.9 million (2015)[1]
Chancellor	Kelly Damphousse
President	Charles Welch
Academic staff	730[2]
Administrative staff	1,463[2]
Students	21,976 (system-wide)[3] 14,074 Jonesboro campus (Fall 2016)
Postgraduates	3,709[4]
Doctoral students	245[2]
Location	Jonesboro, Arkansas, U.S.
Campus	1,376 acres (5.6 km2) Urban/Suburban
Colors	Scarlet, Black and White
Athletics	NCAA Division I Sun Belt Conference
Nickname	Red Wolves (Indians 1931–2008)
Sports	16 teams
Mascots	Howl and Scarlet (formerly The Indian Tribe, Jumping Joe, Running Joe, and Red)
Website	www.astate.edu

Arkansas State University student union, Jonesboro, Arkansas

Arkansas State University (also known as A-State^[5]) is a public research university and is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System, the state's second largest college system and second largest university by enrollment. It is located atop 1,376 acres (5.6 km²) on Crowley's Ridge at Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. The university marked its centennial year in 2009. Arkansas State has Sun Belt rivalries with all West Division schools (Little Rock, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas State, and UT Arlington). Their primary Sun Belt rivals are Little Rock and Louisiana-Monroe.

History

A-State was founded as the First District Agricultural School in Jonesboro in 1909 by the Arkansas Legislature as a regional agricultural training school. Robert W. Glover, a Missionary Baptist pastor who served in both houses of the Arkansas Legislature from Sheridan (1905–1912), introduced in 1909 the resolution calling for the establishment of four state agricultural colleges, including the future ASU.^[6]

In 1918, ASU began offering a two-year college program. In 1925, it became First District Agricultural and Mechanical College. A four-year degree program was begun in 1930. A & M College became Arkansas State College in 1933. In 1967, the Arkansas Legislature elevated the college to university status and changed the name to Arkansas State University.

In the fall of 2014, A-State welcomed its most academically prepared freshman class. The result of several years of growing both admission standards and increasing on-campus housing, A-State's incoming first-year first-time student composite ACT was 23.9 with an average high school GPA of 3.47. This was the third consecutive year of improvement for the ACT/GPA freshman classes for Arkansas State. The Arkansas State Honors College has grown 59% since 2009. The university also posted back-to-back high graduate counts in spring 2012 and spring 2013, producing the most graduates in a two-year period in school history. The university contains the largest library in the state of Arkansas, the Dean B. Ellis Library.

View of Arkansas State University Dean B. Ellis Library, Jonesboro, Arkansas

Campuses

For other Arkansas State University campuses, see Arkansas State University System.

• Main campus, Jonesboro, Arkansas
• Arkansas State University-Paragould, an instructional site of the Jonesboro campus
• Arkansas State University-Querétaro, a campus in Querétaro, Mexico, inaugurated on September 21, 2017.

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. Newer doctoral programs are in environmental science, molecular biosciences and physical therapy. In the fall of 2016, Arkansas State enrolled the first class of approximately 115 students to its branch of the New York Institute of Technology's medical school. The medical school is located on campus in the historic Wilson Hall.

Today, the institution has more than 90,000 alumni. Programs at the doctorate, specialist's, master's, bachelor's and associate degree levels are available through the various colleges: Agriculture, Engineering & Technology, Business, Education & Behavioral Science, Liberal Arts & Communication, Nursing & Health Professions, Sciences & Mathematics, and Undergraduate Studies.

The ASU System

ASU's Fowler Center is a regional center for The Arts.

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 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 was 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.

A-State has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. Current enrollment for the Jonesboro campus stands close to 14,000, and the system has an enrollment of greater than 21,000.

Media

A-State's journalism program reorganized into the College of Media and Communication for fall 2013. The College of Media and Communication is home to three student-led media outlets and a NPR affiliate radio station. The Herald, a weekly student newspaper, was founded in 1921 and has a circulation of 5,000. ASU-TV, a program under the Department of Radio-Television, gives students hands-on experience in the field of television broadcasting. Starting in fall 2013, an Internet-based student radio station, Red Wolf Radio, was added to the student media. Arkansas State is also home to KASU, a 100,000-watt FM station, which is the oldest NPR affiliate west of the Mississippi River.

Centennial Bank Stadium (formerly known as Indian Stadium)

Athletics

Arkansas State participates as a member of the NCAA Division I Sun Belt Conference. The athletic teams, previously known as the Indians, are now known as the Red Wolves.

In 2012, the Red Wolves football team became Sun Belt Conference champions for a second straight year, finishing the regular season with a 9-3 record, and capped off its successful season with its first bowl game victory since becoming a Division I-A (FBS) program with a 17-13 victory over Kent State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl, as well as earning its first win over a ranked opponent since joining the FBS in 1992.

In 2013, the football team became the Sun Belt Conference champions for a third straight year, finishing with a 7-5 regular season record and won a second consecutive GoDaddy Bowl with a 23-20 victory over then 10-2 Ball State.

Greek life

Approximately 15% of ASU's undergraduate students are members of one of the 20 Greek organizations located on the campus.

Notable people

Mike Beebe – Governor of Arkansas (2007-2015)

ASU alumni include:

• Larry P. Arnn – president, Hillsdale College^[9]
• Adrian Banks – professional basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Super League
• Fred Barnett – NFL player^[10]
• Mike Beebe – governor of Arkansas (2006–2014)^[11]
• Earl Bell – Olympic bronze medalist in pole vaulting (1984) and former world record holder
• Darren Benson – NFL player^[12]
• Lonnie D. Bentley – professor and the department head of computer and information technology at Purdue University^[13]
• Bill Bergey – NFL player^[14]
• Gene Bradley – USFL player and NFL draftee^[15]
• Ray Brown – NFL player^[16]
• Rodger Bumpass – comedian and voice of Squidward on the popular TV show SpongeBob SquarePants
• Ronald R. Caldwell – Arkansas state senator from District 23 since 2013; real estate businessman in Wynne^[17]
• Davy Carter – Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, banker and attorney^[18]
• Maurice Carthon – NFL player and coach^[19]
• Ann Clemmer – Republican former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Saline County, 2009-2015; political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock^[20]
• Rick Crawford (politician) – U.S. Representative for the First District of Arkansas.^[21]
• John Dickson- former ABA player^[22]
• Patrick Eddie – NBA player^[23]
• Carlos Emmons – NFL player^[24]
• Jake Files (bachelor's degree in accounting) – state senator from District 8 in Fort Smith^[25]
• Brad Franchione – two-time NJCAA National Championship head football coach^[26]
• Jeremy Gillam – farmer and member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from White County^[27]
• Michael John Gray (B.S. marketing) – Democratic member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Woodruff County since 2015; a farmer with a law degree^[28]
• Michelle Gray (Class of 1999, B.S. accounting) – Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Melbourne in Izard County^[29]
• Leroy Harris – NFL player^[30]
• Jeff Hartwig – former U.S. record holder in pole vault^[31]
• Julia Butterfly Hill – environmental activist^[32]
• Thomas Hill – Olympic bronze medalist in 110-meter hurdles (1972)^[33]
• Robert C. Hinson – U.S. Air Force lieutenant general^[34]
• Beth Holloway – speech pathologist and motivational speaker, mother of Natalee Holloway^[35]
• V. E. Howard, Church of Christ clergyman who started the radio International Gospel Hour, based originally in Texarkana, Texas^[36]
• John K. Hutchison, Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Poinsett, Craighead, Jackson, and Independence counties from 2013 to 2015; farmer in Harrisburg
• Buddy Jewell, country music singer
• Blake Johnson (exercise science) – Republican member of the Arkansas State Senate from Clay County; rice and soybean farmer in Corning^[37]
• David Johnson – NFL player^[38]
• Tyrell Johnson – NFL player, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions^[39]
• Ken Jones – NFL player^[40]
• Al Joyner – Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump (1984)
• George Kell – broadcaster and Hall of Fame baseball player
• Cleo Lemon – NFL player^[41]
• D. Price Marshall – federal judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas^[42]
• Ron Meeks – NFL and CFL player^[43]
• Dennis Meyer – CFL coach^[44]
• Josh Miller – member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Heber Springs; obtained associate degree from ASU campus in Heber Springs^[45]
• Jerry Muckensturm – NFL player^[46]
• David Nail – Mercury and MCA Nashville recording artist^[47]
• Chris Odom – NFL player^[48]
• Kyle Richardson – NFL player^[49]
• Jerry Rook – former American Basketball Association player^[50]
• Elbert Shelley – NFL player^[51]
• George K. Sisler – posthumous Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam War^[52]
• Edward J. Steimel – Louisiana business lobbyist and columnist^[53]
• Dan A. Sullivan – Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for Craighead and Greene counties since 2015; played basketball for ASU^[54]
• Kellie Suttle – Two-time Olympic pole vaulter and silver medalist at 2001 World Indoor Championships and 1999 Pan American Games^[55]
• Charley Thornton – sports figure^[56]
• Debbye Turner – Miss America, 1990
• Dave Wallace (Class of 1970) – member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Mississippi County; inductee of the ASU Hall of Heroes for his military service in the Vietnam War^[57]
• Corey Williams – NFL player^[58]
• Miller Williams – poet^[59]

Notable administrators

• Karen Hopper, associate vice chancellor for research, special projects, and distance learning at the Mountain Home campus of ASU; Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from District 100 in Baxter County^[60]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arkansas State University.

• Official website
• Arkansas State Athletics website

Coordinates: 35°50′28″N 90°40′47″W / 35.841082°N 90.679586°W / 35.841082; -90.679586