(07-18-2017 11:09 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(07-18-2017 04:49 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  

(07-18-2017 04:31 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(07-18-2017 03:59 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  What is notable to me is Arkansas has less than half the population of Arizona, but more than triple the number of separate schools (counting each of the U of Ark 4-year schools)

Arkansas State - 13.5K Students, 130 miles from LR
Arkansas Tech - 11.3K Students. 90 miles from LR
Central Arkansas - 11.5K students, 32 miles from Little Rock
Henderson State - 3.5K Students, 90 miles from LR
Southern Arkansas 3.4K Students, 140 miles from LR
U of Arkansas - 25K Students, 190 miles from Little Rock
U of Arkansas - Ft. Smith - 7K students, 160 miles from Little Rock
U of Arkansas - Little Rock - 12.5K Students
U of Arkansas - Monticello - 4K Students, 90 miles from Little Rock
U of Arkansas - Pine Bluff - 2.6K Students, 44 Miles from Little Rock

65% of the population of Arizona is in the Phoenix metro which is home to 9 of the state's 10 largest cities. Tucson is the second largest city and only one of the 10 largest not in the Phoenix metro. Those two metro regions have roughly 80% of the population of Arizona and they are about 120 miles apart.

In Arkansas only 24% of the population is in the Little Rock metro, 16% in Fayetteville-Bentonville metro and they are 200 miles apart. 4% in Jonesboro metro which is 250 miles from Fayetteville and 130 from Little Rock.

Very different situations.

But you still have tiny schools - some located 45 min or less from other state schools. Phoenix metro has large population centers more distant from Tempe than that.

But Arizona had a different history and population distribution. The Civil War, Jim Crow, shifting economy all play factors. It's not like someone sat down on day and said scatter 10 bachelor degree granting schools about.

University of Arkansas started as a land grant by the Reconstruction government in remote and little populated Fayetteville as a reward for Union sympathies. What is now UAPB was started as a branch campus (later independent then folded back in after financial problems) for blacks to avoid integration in Pine Bluff, southeast of Little Rock where king cotton met the timber industry.

Then nearly 40 years what became UCA was established west of Little Rock as a teacher's college in 1908.

A year later the four agriculture schools that would become jucos then four year schools in the state, AState, Arkansas Tech, UA Monticello, and Southern Arkansas.

All stays quiet for 20 years until the Arkansas Methodists choose to close their college in Arkadelphia and merge it with Hendrix in Conway. The locals and alums want to save the school so the local politicians lobby to turn the school over to the state and the Methodists agree if the state will take it they will donate the buildings and land to the state so it becomes Henderson State and operates as a public liberal arts college in 1929.

The state won't add another four year public for 40 years.

In 1927 the Little Rock School District created a juco called Little Rock Junior College. During the desegregation crisis in 1957 the district spun the school off as a private college to avoid state orders to shut down the District. The new board made it a four year school called Little Rock University. As the 60's drew to a close it was broke and on the verge of closing and the legislature was persuaded to accept donation of the school and add it to the UA System in 1969.

The latest bachelor degree institution was UA Fort Smith in 1997. At the time Fort Smith was the largest city in America without a campus awarding a four year degree. The school started as a juco run by the local school district in 1928, was spun off as private school in 1950. In 1965 it became tax supported by a county-wide property tax. 1989 it offered a degree center in partnership with 5 colleges before being able to award its own bachelor degrees. When it merged into UA in 2001 it had to be approved by both boards, the state and because of the tax, the county voters.

From statehood until the 1970's the population of Arkansas was mostly in Little Rock and south and east of Little Rock. Since it has shifted with population in Little Rock and north and west with Jonesboro being the only city growing in eastern Arkansas. Mechanization of farming and timber, automation of railroads, and the oil fields in south Arkansas mostly playing out has decimated East and south Arkansas. In 40 years Pine Bluff has gone from second largest city to 9th. In 1970 Jonesboro's rival was Blytheville with both having around 25,000. Today Blytheville has 9000 fewer residents and Jonesboro 40,000 more.

Thanks for that - very informative.


But in 2017, are all those still necessary?