The South Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees voted to extend the contract of Dr. Bentley Wallace, president, on Thursday.
In a specially-called meeting Thursday afternoon, Gary Griffis, vice chairman of the Board, said an evaluation of Wallace's work over the past year indicated that extending his contract was necessary.
"It was extremely clear the contract needed to be extended from a Board perspective because of the good job Dr. Wallace did last year," Griffis said.
Wallace joined SouthArk as president in February 2020 after a months-long recruiting process following former SouthArk President Dr. Barbara Jones' retirement. A month later, the world and the way schools across the country operate abruptly changed when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
"Helping our students and our employees navigate that safely and continue to serve the community and our students amid all that has certainly been a challenge and our team have accomplished that very, very well," Wallace said on Thursday after the meeting, noting that the pandemic has been the biggest challenge he thinks he's faced since he started at SouthArk.
Wallace has an "ongoing 36-month" contract, and he explained that if the Board had taken no action on renewing or extending it by June 30, it would have automatically renewed. However, he said he was thankful for the Board's confidence.
"We're doing some great work -- the entire community at SouthArk," he said. "It's gratifying to be recognized by the Board."
Under Wallace's leadership, SouthArk has expanded their athletics program to include softball and baseball. The athletics program first began in 2019 with basketball.
The college has also added two new endowed scholarships, for forestry technology and process technology, and will add two new programs this fall, for forestry technology and an LPN nursing program for high school students. Wallace also said the college is in Phase 4 of renovating the historic McWilliams House on the SouthArk campus, which serves as the student activities center.
"We're still exploring the possibility of student housing; we haven't made a decision one way or another," Wallace said. A study on the fusibility of providing housing for SouthArk students was undertaken last fall, and discussions have continued since.
Wallace also highlighted the formation of the President's Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion last year, which led to the college being recognized this year as one of the Most Promising Places to Work in Community Colleges by "Diverse: Issues in Higher Education," a publication on diversity in American higher education, and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.
"In the initial phases, we wee looking at our overall governance structure and how policies and procedures reflect, or don't reflect, diverse views and participation, really looking at some of those foundational pieces," Wallace explained.
Trustees also discussed SouthArk's 2022-2027 strategic plan, which is being formulated now. The Board approved a framework that highlighted potential areas of emphasis of the plan, and agreed to meet in the coming months to further discuss the goals and initiatives they hope to see the college pursue over the next few years.
"That process we're in the middle of right now will frame the entirety of what we do with our goals and action plans for the next five years," Wallace said. He said the plan will probably be finalized around December.