RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (March 20, 2008)---Four men who gave 145 years of combined service on the Arkansas Tech University faculty were granted professor emeritus status by the Tech Board of Trustees during its regular monthly meeting at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center on Thursday.
Dr. Raymond E. “Gene” Cole, Bobby Mullen, Dr. Earl F. Schrock, Jr. and Dr. Keith C. Wills were all named professor emeritus at Arkansas Tech in recognition of their academic contributions to the university.
Cole, professor emeritus of economics, is a 1969 graduate of the University of Arkansas. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1976, also from the University of Arkansas. Cole began his career at Tech in 1970, and he served as head of the Department of Business and Economics from 1976-80.
Cole went on to become the first dean of the School of Business from 1987-94. At that point, he returned to full-time teaching and remained in that capacity until his retirement in 2007.
Mullen, professor emeritus of mathematics, graduated from Tech in 1952 and went on to earn a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1955.
Mullen taught at Arkansas Tech from 1956-98, and in 1997 he was the second recipient of the Arkansas Tech Excellence Award in Teaching.
Schrock, professor emeritus of English, graduated from Tech in 1966. He earned a Master of Arts degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Arkansas. Schrock joined the Tech faculty in 1971, served as head of the English Department from 1980-84 and was Dean of the School of Liberal and Fine Arts from 1984-96.
He returned to the classroom full-time in 1996 and remained in that role until his retirement in 2007. Schrock received the Arkansas Tech Excellence Award in Teaching in 2001 and the Arkansas Tech Excellence Award for Service in 2006.
Wills, professor emeritus of health and physical education, earned his bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College in 1958, his master’s degree from Arkansas State University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1970.
He joined the Tech faculty in 1968, and two years later was named head of the Department of Physical Education and Health. Wills held that position until his retirement in 1998.
In other business during the meeting on Thursday, the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees:
*approved the selection of AMR Architects of Little Rock to serve as the architectural firm for expansions to the Corley Building and McEver Hall;
*authorized the university to use Simmons First Bank to handle the operating accounts for the university during the 2008-09 fiscal year (the account is rotated between Simmons First Bank, Arvest Bank, Regions Bank, First Arkansas Valley Bank, the Bank of the Ozarks, River Town Bank, First State Bank and Bank of America on an annual basis);
*approved a transfer of $383,798 from the unappropriated auxiliary housing fund balance to complete replacement of fan coil units in Turner Residence Hall;
*approved a new affirmative action policy for Arkansas Tech;
*approved an adjustment in Hall of Distinction nomination criteria that will require any nominee in the Distinction in Intercollegiate Athletics category to have completed his or her athletic career at Tech 15 years prior to the nomination (previous guidelines called for 10 years, but the change made on Thursday makes the Distinction in Intercollegiate Athletics category consistent with other Hall of Distinction categories);
*approved a resolution to issue bonds and the bond purchase agreement that will lead to the construction of the new physical plant complex on the north end of campus.
