ChancellorSeptember 05, 2025

Campus Update, September 5, 2025

Written By: Terisa Riley

Dear colleagues and students,

 

This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce First Friday Breakfast. Each month, community leaders are invited to talk about important economic and community development initiatives. The members always enjoy hearing about the growth and development of the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. Many thanks to Vice Chancellor Blake Rickman and Associate Vice Chancellor Kendall Ross who spoke about the ways in which the University and the UAFS Center for Economic Development are supporting the River Valley.

Today, I participated in a half-day, virtual meeting with chancellors from across the University of Arkansas System. During our meeting we discussed promoting community partnerships to engage in academic program development, heard from Chancellor Charles Robinson about lessons learned from the unfortunate swatting incident at UA-Fayetteville, learned about new policies which will be proposed at the UA Board of Trustees meeting in late September, received some demographic information which can be used for future enrollment planning, and discussed ways to identify “ghost students” to prevent losses in financial aid.

Financial Aid Disbursement: A big thanks to the professionals in the Office of Financial Aid who ensured that financial aid was disbursed this week. This process is an important step to guarantee that all forms of financial aid have been added to your accounts. For those of you with a credit balance, the Office of Student Accounts Receivable/Cashier will begin processing refunds next week. Please be certain to review your accounts and contact either the Office of Financial Aid or the Cashier if you have any questions.

Required training—As a reminder, employees are required to complete several online trainings assigned in Workday in order to ensure compliance with federal and state laws and to create a safe campus. Most of these trainings are required of all employees in the University of Arkansas System. Please review your Workday account frequently to ensure that you are up-to-date on all assignments. Please be certain to complete trainings before the stated deadlines assigned to each training. In accordance with University of Arkansas System Policy 450.1 Mandatory Training, employees who do not complete assigned training may not be eligible for compensation increases such as merit increases, promotion increases, or cost of living adjustments.

Budget Council—This week, the UAFS Budget Council met to discuss our approach to creating a balanced budget for the 2026-27 school year. One strategy we will use is to create subcommittees to review each area supported by fees. The subcommittee evaluate the fee revenue and expenses to make recommendations such as reducing expenses, discontinuing some initiatives, or increasing fees (where necessary). Members of our Budget Council volunteered to serve on each of the subcommittees, but they likely will want and need additional employees and students to participate. We will seek volunteers through Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, and Student Government Association, so please let your leaders of those organizations know if you would like to participate.

Last minute reminder: The UAFS International Faculty and Staff Association, open to all employees, will have their first meeting of the fall today at 4 p.m. in Latture/BII 102. Please feel free to stop by to learn more about how to get involved!

Lions: Enjoy the weekend, recharge, and come back ready to keep doing great things!

As always, I’m honored to serve as your chancellor.

 

Terisa Riley

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