ASU-Beebe Heber Springs campus will celebrate its 25th Anniversary Celebration with a reception from 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at the Brinkley Courtyard on the Heber Springs campus at 101 Rivercrest Drive at the base of the beautiful Sugarloaf Mountain.
In early 1997, a group of Heber Springs citizens gathered to discuss the possibility of having a college campus in Cleburne County. The following fall, ASU-Beebe began offering courses at Heber Springs High School. Later, classes were held at the Courthouse Annex on Main Street using part-time faculty, as well as "compressed" or interactive video courses. Act 426 of 1999, sponsored by Representative Rebecca Lynn, established funding for the campus as a center of ASU-Beebe.
Student demand for continued college courses and the need for a permanent campus increased, and the citizens of Cleburne County voted to support ASU-Beebe Heber Springs continued growth with the passage of a half-cent countywide sales tax. The first Heber Springs campus facility, the John L. Latimer Skills Training Center, officially opened in 2002 at the Cleburne County Industrial Park on Highway 210 East.
Beginning in March 2002, ASU-Beebe purchased 249 acres on the east side of the city of Heber Springs. Construction on the ASU-Beebe Heber Springs campus at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain was completed in 2007, which consists of the Academic Center and Student Services/Administration Building.
In addition to community support, the Heber Springs campus grew under the vision and leadership of Dr. Dianne Tiner-Logan, who served as the first vice chancellor for ASU-Beebe Heber Springs, and the late Steve Storm, who was one of the first faculty members.
“Twenty-five years ago, the vision this community had for bringing higher education to Cleburne County became a reality,” Dr. Dianne Tiner-Logan said. “Since then, hundreds of people have earned college degrees and technical certificates, have obtained knowledge and skills to enhance career growth, and have participated in community education. I am proud to have been part of the development of this campus and am confident that these programs will continue to have a positive impact on many people, young and old.”
The ASU-Beebe Heber Springs campus now offers coursework enabling students to complete the Arkansas Division of Higher Education’s (ADHE) 35-hour General Education Core Curriculum. General education courses are certified to articulate seamlessly to public colleges or universities in the state through ADHE’s ACTS Transfer System.
Dr. Blake Perkins, associate vice chancellor for academics, said that the general education classes make up the core curriculum of the college’s associate degrees in liberal arts, liberal arts and sciences, business, education, and health sciences.
“Once students complete their associate degrees, they are then eligible to participate in 2+2 transfer agreements with Arkansas State University and other four-year universities around the state to earn bachelor’s degrees,” Perkins said.
In addition, the Heber Springs campus offers several specialty programs, including a Marine Technology program at the Latimer Center that is one of only two programs in the state. Students in this technical program may earn up to five industry-recognized certifications through the college’s partnership with Yamaha, in addition to other career-ready technician skills and hands-on training.
The campus is also home to a part-time Licensed Practical Nursing program and in August welcomed its largest cohort of nursing students to a new lab space and classrooms in the Academic Center.
Additionally, the Heber Springs campus has an Adult Education Center at the Latimer Center and offers a variety of community education classes and specialized workforce training classes for local industries through the Office of Workforce and Community Development.
The ASU-Beebe Heber Springs campus serves high school students throughout Cleburne County with opportunities for concurrent-credit classes in both the general education program and its Regional Career Center programs in Medical Professions-Patient Care Technician, Marine Technology, and Welding Technology. In these concurrent-credit programs, area high school students earn credit toward high school graduation and college coursework. Recently, the Regional Career Center formed a new partnership with Quitman High School’s well-known Building Trades Program on the high school’s campus and plans to begin offering college credit in Construction Trades coursework in the future.
The ASU-Beebe Heber Springs campus 25th Anniversary Celebration is open to the public. For more details, call (501) 362-1100, or view the website at www.asub.edu.
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