• WARNED OF CUTS: Shane Broadway

Shane Broadway, interim director of the state Higher Education Department, explains that this is fallout from state money shortfalls. The department, which had been spending accumulated fund balances to support a wide range of scholarship programs, has spent down the surplus in part because of a rising demand for undergraduate scholarship help. Higher Ed asked the legislature for an additional $7 million to continue all 24 scholarship programs at existing levels. It got only $2 million and legislators directed that all that money go to the Governor's Distinguished Scholarship program, 300 top students who get $10,000 a year. That program was going to be cut by two-thirds without the money and students digitally bombed legislators with complaints.

Somewhat overlooked in the fight to save those scholarships was the department's broad range of other scholarship aid that now must produce $5 million in savings.

It will mean sharp cuts in the 77 entering slots that had been provided in past years in dentistry, podiatry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, osteopathic medicine and optometry. There are a range of subsidies — all shown at this Higher Ed link. Broadway said, for example, that subsidies for slots at vet school could drop from 12 to 5. (Each school decides which Arkansas students will receive the benefit, not the state of Arkansas.) The final number will depend on how many students already receiving aid continue in school. Enough are completing chiropractic studies, for example, that Broadway anticipates that the state might even be able to fund additional entering chiropractic slots. Broadway said he'd been broadcasting widely, including with a disclaimer on the website, the possibility of cuts in programs.

Professional schools aren't the only area where students will feel cuts. The reductions also will affect scholarship for children of people in the military and for children of law officers who died in the line of duty.

I hope to have a detailed list of projected cuts shortly.

UPDATE: Here are the projected cuts. Broadway cautions they are not firm figures.

On the jump is a note Broadway wrote during the legislative session when a parent raised a question about scholarship cuts. It explains circumstances in more detail:

It's spring and that means it's time to increase tuition for the next college year. UCA got the ball rolling last week with a 3.59 percent increase.

The fiscal affairs committee of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees will discuss increases proposed at the various system campuses tomorrow.

The proposed increases range at the major campuses from 3.5 percent at Fayetteville to 10 percent at Fort Smith. UALR proposes 4.9 percent. Here's a link to the full list.

The UA news release on the meeting (on the jump) notes that state support has been dropping as a percentage of total cost and per student, thanks to a big increase in the number enrolled. (Remember when lottery creators said the amendment would prevent the legislature from decreasing support for higher education? In dollar terms, perhaps. But that is not so meaningful. Meanwhile, the ever shrinking lottery scholarship, is down from $5,000 to $2,000 for first-year students in three years' time.)

What had you accomplished when you were 18? Chances are it doesn't touch Raymond Walter's accomplishments. On Saturday, Raymond, 18, will graduate from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics, physics and economics, a triple major!

From a UA release:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Raymond Walter was just a sophomore at the University of Arkansas when he was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest, largest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society. The society’s motto — “let the love of learning rule humanity” — continues to appeal to him.

On Saturday, May 11, Walter will graduate with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics, physics and economics, a triple major in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He is accomplishing the feat at age 18.

What makes his accomplishment even more impressive is that he has a severe form of muscular dystrophy that forces him to use a motorized wheelchair.

“I really do just love learning,” said Walter, who was just 14 when he graduated from high school. “I like to learn as much as I can. I am willing to work and I want to work and learn. There’s an element of ability, for sure, but it wouldn’t mean much at all if I didn’t work as much as I do.”

• WINNERS AT MIT: The Picasolar team from the University of Arkansas.

The Boston Globe reports that a startup enterprise from the University of Arkansas has won $250,000 as the winner of the MIT Clean Energy Prize.

Picasolar is developing technology to improve the efficiency of solar panels. It beat 56 teams from 38 schools for the $150,000 prize, supplemented by a $100,000 prize from the Department of Energy.

Clean energy? Who needs it when we have pipelines and Canadian sand full of tar ready for pumping through Mayflower? It's just a scam. Ask any Republican or Rush Limbaugh. About the green energy industry or climate change.

Also: Did they actually win $250,000 without benefit of $25 million in city taxpayer money to build a tech park? Something's definitely amiss.

Here's more about Picasolar. The backgrounds of the group are really interesting. A thumbnail on their project:

The Hydrogen Selective Emitter (HSE), offers solar cell manufacturers the advantage that is necessary to become profitable in the solar industry. With our HSE technology, manufacturers could increase profits from negative $1 up to $34 per solar panel based on efficiency gains and silver cost savings. For our average 4 million panel customer, that is an increase of $140 million in revenue.

The team earlier won $25,000 in the Donald Reynolds Governor's Cup competition in Arkansas.

• DR. CHARLES DUNN

A first-generation college graduate from a Magnolia family, Dr. Dunn left a positive mark at Henderson and many friends and admirers, me among them. He continued to teach political science after his retirement.

• PHILANDER CONSTRUCTION: Drawings for new activities building announced today.

A pledge of $1 million from trustee C.J. Duvall and a $10 million federal loan will help Philander Smith College build a student activities building on the 135-year-old campus. The college board approved the project today.

Duvall, a telecommunications executive and member of the Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board, has already given 60 percent of his pledge. “I’m hoping it would compel others to donate to this effort," he said in a campus release. "These students and this campus deserve our support.”

The first phase of construction includes a student union and dining facility. President Johnny Moore said he supported naming the new facility after Duvall.

Dr. G. Richard Smith, chair of the department of psychiatry at UAMS, will be the new dean of the College of Medicine, succeeding Dr. Debra Fiser.

UAMS news release follows on the jump.

Charles "Cliff" Gibson III, 58, a Monticello lawyer, is Gov. Mike Beebe's latest appointment to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. He succeeds Mike Akin of Monticello in the seat. He'll have a 10-year term.

"Cliff's appointment helps ensure a dependable voice on the Board for the U of A campuses in South Arkansas," Beebe said in a prepared statment. "His sound judgment and calm demeanor will serve the entire system of schools well in the coming years."

Gibson has a private practice and has been Drew County attorney for 12 years. He attended UA-Monticello and is a graduate of the UALR Law School.

Big hire announced at the University of Central Arkansas:

University of Central Arkansas President Tom Courtway announced today that Kelley Erstine will join the UCA executive staff, effective July 1, 2013 as Chief of Staff.

A native of Sheridan, Ark, Erstine is a 1979 graduate of UCA with a degree in journalism. Previously, he served UCA as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, and also served as Vice President for Institutional Advancement. In his new position with UCA, his salary will be $170,000 per year.

“Kelley Erstine knows the University of Central Arkansas very well,” Courtway said. “He is well known throughout the State of Arkansas and this region of the country, and is a proven administrator. He is thoroughly committed to the University of Central Arkansas, and he and his wife, Leslie, are very excited to have the opportunity to return to Arkansas to live and work. He will be a valuable asset to UCA as we continue to move forward. I am very pleased he has agreed to return to UCA.”

Since July 2008, Erstine has served as the chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina, a state trade association representing approximately 1,000 independent insurance agencies

The tenure of the previous chief of staff, Jack Gillean, ended badly, you might recall. I also recall Erstine's previous stints at UCA including overseeing the UCA Foundation, which had at least a tangential role in the tangled financial life of former President Lu Hardin.

• Rutledge

Gov. Mike Beebe has appointed Reynie Rutledge, chairman and CEO of First Security Bank, to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.

Rutledge is a longtime friend and neighbor of Beebe in Searcy.

He replaces John Tyson, who resigned last month.

The board of trustees at Batesville's Lyon College has voted to do something uncommon these days: It will not raise tuition or fees for the 2013-2014 academic year. In part, administrators said, because of the recent changes to the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship.

Lyon's tuition this year is $23,370.

See the full release on the jump.

• DR. TIMOTHY CLOYD

CONWAY, Ark. (February 15, 2013) — Dr. J. Timothy Cloyd today is stepping down as President of Hendrix College after 12 years in that position.

The announcement was made at the February meeting of the Board of Trustees, where it was also announced that, after a sabbatical, Dr. Cloyd will return to the Hendrix faculty as a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations and work in higher education consulting.

• CHRIS WYRICK

News release:

University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart today announced that Chris Wyrick, currently the executive director of the Razorback Foundation, has agreed to join Gearhart’s senior administrative team as the next vice chancellor for university advancement.

Gearhart made the announcement at an event held in the lobby of the university’s Administration Building. More than 100 U of A alumni, donors, university students, faculty and staff gathered for the announcement.

UPDATE: A spokesman said Wyrick and the chancellor have signed an offer letter that will establish Wyrick's salary at $279,000 once he assumes his new position.

The rest of the news release follows on the jump. It doesn't recap the discovery that the Advancement Division under Brad Choate's leadership had been discovered to be overspending at a rate of $4-5 million a year. That Choate was removed — at full pay — while a female subordinate had her pay slashed. That the UA has stonewalled request for complete details on the overspending and been sued by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. That the Razorback Foundation, though joined at the hip with the university through ticket sales and pay of coaches and financed in part by premiums on tickets sold by the university for university events, has steadfastly refused accountability of its activities. But you knew all that.