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UAFS program focuses on recruiting active military, veterans

Times Record - 2/21/2019

Feb. 21-- Feb. 21--New recruitment programs at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith were a major focus of the university's Board of Visitors meeting Wednesday.

UAFS Interim Chancellor Edward Serna said the university is launching a campaign to recruit active military and veterans. The primary goals of this campaign are to increase enrollment in three programs: Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership and the new Unmanned Aerial Systems program. Another goal is to develop a national brand.

"One of the issues we've run into as we've gone out and started to talk to companies across the country about our new UAS program is they have no idea who the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith is," Serna said. "They like what we're doing, they think that the program we built is the right program, but we just do not have that brand recognition on a national level. So really, this initiative is not only to recruit, but to get the UAFS brand out there in the military defense contracting world."

Serna said the university's recruiting strategies to accomplish this include developing a military recruiting video to geo-target 20 locations with a large military presence, partnering with Task & Purpose, a media company that focuses on military and veteran culture, and partnering with local company Kombi Creative to develop three high quality videos highlighting the university's BBA, BSOL and UAS programs.

91 percent of active duty military enlisted personnel, Serna said, do not have a bachelor's degree.

"We also know that within that military veteran population, what they're looking for is a way to connect their prior military experience to a credential that will lead to a high-paying job," Serna said. "That's why the BBA, BSOL and UAS are the right degrees for this program."

In speaking about the university's internal capabilities for this campaign, Serna said the new UAS director, David Pollman, is a veteran who has an established military network and understands the market, among other qualities. UAFS also has an emerging partnership with the Arkansas National Guard and an "amazing" student veterans organization. The campaign will run from April to September.

Georgia Hale, UAFS provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, provided the board of visitors with an update on the university Adult Degree Completion Program on Wednesday as well. Hale said the university will be launching the program, which was announced in January, in fall 2019. It is targeted toward working adults.

"These are people who have worked at least five years, who are at least 25 years of age, who have amassed at least 30 hours of college credit and who do not already have a baccalaureate degree," Hale said.

A brochure for the program provided by Hale states UAFS uses a nationally recognized method of awarding college credit for past experience, be it from work, seminars, military education or training/certification programs. To accelerate degree completion, every student who applies for the program will submit a portfolio of past work for review by the program director. Credit can be awarded so applicants do not have to take courses on what they already know.

Hale said the program has two degree programs it is going to roll out initially: the BSOL and the Bachelor of General Studies. The degree completion program will be a high-touch program, meaning that somebody, the program director, will be guiding the people in the program every step of the way.

"Now this person will be all over the place gathering that information to assist these students to get through the program, but it is our goal to give them as much credit as we can and make it less onerous as possible as they're going through the program," Hale said.

The program director position has been advertised, Hale said. There were 41 applicants, a number that has been narrowed down to three. These three people will visit the UAFS campus within the next week.

Hale said the university hopes to start off with 30 students in the program.

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(c)2019 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.)

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