The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is leasing a downtown building to serve as a meeting space and an additional place to recruit students.
The 4,365-square-foot space at 333 President Clinton Avenue in the city's River Market will hold "a grand opening" on Jan. 16. People can drop in to inquire about enrollment at UALR, take virtual tours of the campus and buy Trojans gear and tickets, UALR Downtown Director Ross Owyoung said.
The facility also showcases Joe Jones' mural The Struggle in the South, which focuses on lynchings, sharecropping and coal mining, highlighting the atrocities associated with each. Owyoung said he thinks the mural will open conversations surrounding Arkansas' past related to race.
Jones created the mural in 1935 at The Commonwealth College in Mena. After the college closed in 1940, people used the mural as material to build two closets in a residential home. Workers rediscovered the mural in 1984 when they tore down the house and salvaged the mural. They alerted UALR, and the university stored the mural until officials had it restored in 2014.
"This space and this location makes a big statement to folks as they come into Little Rock that UA Little Rock is now a destination on their list of places to go and experience when they're in the capital city, and the mural makes this place historically significant," said Christian O'Neal, the vice chancellor for university advancement.
Community members can drop in to view the mural or inquire about the center's services from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
"This is a billboard or front door to UA Little Rock," Owyoung said.
The facility will be available as a space to rent. In the future, Owyoung said he hopes to have events booked a year out, including UALR professor workshops and lectures that will be open to the public. At the location, officials plan to offer general education classes for people to take without enrolling in the university.
Creating the downtown space hasn't cost the university any money thus far, UALR Chancellor Andrew Rogerson said. The George W. Donaghey Foundation covered the center's rent for three years, and the Central Arkansas Library System, which rented the space to UALR, handled most of the renovations.
"To this point there hasn't been a single state dollar invested in this space, and there won't be for another three years," Rogerson said.
UALR already had a presence in downtown Little Rock. Its law school is located at MacArthur Park. And in 2011, the university formed a partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System. The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture is housed at the Arkansas Studies Institute in the River Market District.
The History and Culture Center is a repository of letters, legal documents, photographs, maps, architectural drawings, pamphlets, books, journals, newspapers and other materials that scholars and others use for research.
UALR is not the only public university that has set up a spot in downtown Little Rock this year.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville opened a downtown Little Rock location in September, said Debbie Davis, the associate director of the UA Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Walton College at Second and Main streets is designed to offer business-related programs for professionals in the area and will be accessible for the public to rent, Davis said.
Stephens Inc. is leasing the building to the university for $1 a year. Startup costs for the center included paint, furniture and carpet. Brent Williams, a Walton College associate dean, said in an email that operational costs include utilities and the salary of a full-time employee who works at the location.
Anderson Penix, the communications director for the Downtown Little Rock Partnership organization, said he is excited that universities are making the effort to "really set roots down here in our walkable downtown space."
Although Penix welcomes other universities to set up similar operations downtown, he said he does not know of any other universities immediately planning to do so.
Penix said he appreciates that the locations bring students to downtown and offers programming to the community.
Metro on 12/17/2018