Press & News |

Press Release: Clinton School of Public Service Approved


The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board today approved the degree and certificate programs of the new University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service (UACS), which will be located at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.

Thomas Bruce, M.D., dean pro tem of the Clinton School, called the board's action “the culmination of six years of planning and a milestone day for Arkansas.”

The Clinton School will offer a Master of Public Service degree, a graduate certificate, and educational programs for the public. The school will begin its public programs in fall 2004 and will admit its first graduate and certificate students in fall 2005. See more information at www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

The university system's three major graduate campuses – the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF), and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) – will initially collaborate in awarding the Clinton School's master of public service degree. The UACS Council, comprised of the three campuses' vice chancellors for academic affairs and the UACS dean, will report directly to UA System President B. Alan Sugg.

President Bill Clinton, who will have an office at the Clinton Presidential Center, will be an occasional guest lecturer at the school. The school's inaugural faculty members have primary appointments at UAMS, UAF, UALR, or at other institutions in the state. Other visiting faculty members will come from around the nation, some while carrying out research in the Clinton Presidential Library.

Admission will be highly competitive, and a baccalaureate degree plus a minimum of two years experience in a public service role will be requirements. Applicants with seven or more years of public service, at least two of which are in a leadership position, can enter an executive track and finish the master's degree in 12 months, but most students will require another six months or more. Students can apply from around the world.

“Public service is at the heart of our nation's betterment,” Bruce commented. Sugg appointed Bruce, a professor of health policy and management in the UAMS College of Public Health and a former dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, to guide the launch of the Clinton School.

“Careers in public service commonly direct one's thinking to elected office – from mayor, to state legislature and governor, to members of Congress and the President. Public service also includes those who serve in governmental agencies and the diplomatic corps and those who lead nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, advocacy groups, and consumer interests in the private sector,” Bruce said.

The Clinton School will be a professional school, such as schools of law or medicine, rather than a research graduate program. Much of the learning will be in applied fields of community service, citizenship, and social change. Students can request their practicum assignments in a variety of state settings, or in projects that President Clinton has undertaken since he left the White House in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. President Clinton's projects focus on:

 

  • Economic empowerment of poor people
  • Racial, ethnic, and religious reconciliation
  • Health security, specifically combating AIDS
  • Leadership development
  • Citizen service

    Funds to operate the school will be requested from the Arkansas General Assembly during its next regular session, with supplemental funding to come from private donations for scholarships, lectureships, and endowed faculty chairs. Most of the private funds currently being raised by the Clinton Presidential Foundation are directed to construction and endowment of the Clinton Presidential Library and Archives. Whenever possible, however, the foundation directs some of its fundraising to the Clinton School. “An example,” said Skip Rutherford, president of the foundation, “was a generous $4.5 million grant from the Roy and Christine Sturgis Trust to renovation of the historic Choctaw Railway Station where the Clinton School will be housed.” The Choctaw Station will be called Sturgis Hall in the future.

    Bruce noted that UACS, as a publicly funded educational entity, will not advocate any particular political party, creed, or sectarian philosophy. “Although we will be adjacent to the Clinton Library and want very much to be congenial and collaborative in their programs,” Bruce said, “the school will reflect the values and principles of the University of Arkansas. Its clear commitment is to be an intellectual crossroads, a place of scholarship and progressive studies in applied public policy and human relations.”

     

# # #

Learn more about our work at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.