MAGNOLIA –The final planning meeting for construction of a historic campus plaza at Southern Arkansas University will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31, in Room 101 of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center.
The University recently received a $500 mini grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage to plan this project. The result of the planning meetings is a major grant of $5,207.71 to be submitted to the Humanities Council. The University will fund the remaining costs of the project that will exceed $20,000.
Once completed, the plaza in front of Harton Theater will contain six engraved photographic images in black granite of the original campus buildings completed between 1910 and 1914. Visitors to the plaza will be invited to dial a telephone number or access a website via their cell phones to listen to or view interpretative materials explaining the historical importance of Arkansas’s 1909 experiment with four agricultural schools, with special focus on the Third District Agricultural School at Magnolia.
Members of this committee include SAU President Dr. David Rankin, Roger Giles, Dr. Trey Berry, Dr. Ben Johnson, Steven Ochs, Molly Burns, John Rankin, and project director Dr. James Willis.
