The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

historically black university Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff, officially the City of Pine Bluff, is the List of municipalities in Arkansas, tenth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, Jefferson County. The population of the city wa ...

. Founded in 1873, it is the second oldest public college or university in Arkansas. It was one of about 180 "

normal schools Normal(s) or The Normal(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''Normal'' (2003 film), starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson * ''Normal'' (2007 film), starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, Callum Keith Rennie, and Andrew Airlie * ''Norma ...

" established by state governments in the 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing public common schools. UAPB is part of the

University of Arkansas System The University of Arkansas System is a state university system in the U.S. state of Arkansas. It comprises six campuses; a medical school; two law schools; a graduate school focused on public service; a historically black college, statewide rese ...

and

Thurgood Marshall College Fund The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is a non-profit organization that supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending its 55 member-schools that include public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), medical school ...

History

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff was authorized in 1873 by the Reconstruction-era legislature as the Branch Normal College and opened in 1875 with Joseph Carter Corbin principal. A

historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

, it was nominally part of the "normal" (education) department of Arkansas Industrial University, later the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

. It was operated separately as part of a compromise to get a college for black students, as the state maintained

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

well into the 20th century. (Although the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville was integrated when it opened in 1872, it soon became segregated after the end of Reconstruction and didn't start desegregation until 1948.) It later was designated as a

land-grant college A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, or a beneficiary ...

under the 1890 federal amendments to

Morrill Land-Grant Acts The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cessi ...

. As Congress had originally established the land grant colleges to provide education to all qualified students in a state, in 1890 it required states maintaining segregated systems to establish a separate land-grant university for blacks as well as whites. In 1927, the school severed its ties with the University of Arkansas and became Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College (Arkansas AM&N). It moved to its current campus location in 1929. In the mid-1950s AM&N administrators asked students not to support civil rights causes perceived as radical by Arkansas politicians as they feared getting their funding cut by the state. John B. Pickhart, an alumnus of the

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, wrote that therefore AM&N being in Pine Bluff "might actually have slowed development of an integration movement" for that community. - Cited page 362. In 1972, Arkansas AM&N re-joined what is now the

. As a full-fledged campus with graduate study departments, it gained its current name and university status in the process. Since 1988, the university has gained recognition as a leading research institution in

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

studies, offering the state's only comprehensive program in this field. It supports a growing regional industry throughout the Mid-South (according to the school, aquaculture is a $167 million industry in Arkansas alone and worth approximately $1.2 billion in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...

region). In 2012, the program was enhanced by the addition of an Aquaculture/Fisheries PhD program. The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is the oldest and largest HBCU in Arkansas.

Academics

UAPB is divided into eight academic divisions. *The School of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Human Sciences *The School of Arts and Sciences *The School of Business and Management *The School of Education *Graduate Studies & Continuing Education *Carolyn F. Blakely Honors Program *Military Science *University College UAPB is fully accredited by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...

. UAPB has the only comprehensive

program in Arkansas, established to help support the state's $167 million aquaculture industry. Since UAPB offers only one engineering degree program ( agricultural engineering), it has a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UA) that allow qualified students to spend three years to complete an engineering related bachelor's degree at UAPB then automatic admissions into UA to complete their engineering bachelor's degree in two years. Students who successfully complete the UAPB-UA engineering program will have two bachelor's degrees in approximately five years. In 2019, UAPB established a partnership a with UALR William H. Bowen School of Law. UAPB students with at least a 3.4 cumulative GPA, minimum 154

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension and logical reasoning. The test is ...

score, and a clean disciplinary record will automatically be admitted. In addition to being admitted, they will receive a 25 percent tuition scholarship.

University Museum and Cultural Center

The University Museum and Cultural Center on the campus of UAPB contains photographs, catalogs, yearbooks, letters, artifacts, portraits and other ephemera that document the lives and culture of African-Americans who helped shaped the history of UAPB and the

Arkansas Delta The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of ''The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox'', says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep ...

. It is the only museum of its kind in Arkansas and was established in 2005.

Athletics

UAPB's colors are

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and their nickname is the Golden Lions. Arkansas–Pine Bluff's sports teams have participated in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I in the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...

(SWAC) since re-joining the conference in 1998, and competes in the

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...

(formerly I-AA) for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. Home football games are held at

Golden Lion Stadium Simmons Bank Field is a 16,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Built at a cost of $14 million, it opened in 2000 and is home to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Golden Lions football team. Originally called Golden Lio ...

. Men's sports also include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Student life

Residential life

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff houses over 1,000 students on campus. Hunt Hall (named in memory of Silas Hunt, the first black law student at the

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System. Founded as Arkansas Industrial University in 18 ...

) houses male students. The Harrold Complex, consisting of four halls, Johnson, Copeland, Fischer, and Stevens, is for females. Freshman males are assigned to Johnson and Copeland.

Marching band

In 2008, UAPB's band known as the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South (M4), made their debut appearance at the

Honda Battle of the Bands The Honda Battle of the Bands (sometimes abbreviated The Honda or HBOB) is an annual marching band exhibition in the United States which features performances by bands from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Sponsored by the Am ...

. In 2009, M4 was selected to participate in the United States Presidential Inaugural Parade. M4 is one of the top three largest collegiate marching bands in Arkansas and is accompanied by two auxiliaries. The dance auxiliary is known as the "M4 Golden Girls" and the flag auxiliary is known as the "24K Golden Silks." M4 is a five drum major led marching band.

Fraternities and sororities

Eight of the nine National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) fraternities and sororities are represented on campus. Less than five percent of the undergraduate student body are represented in the NPHC. The university also hosts four of the seven fraternity and sorority organizations part of the

National Interfraternity Music Council National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(NIMC).

Notable alumni

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arkansas at Pine Bluff, University of Pine Bluff Universities and colleges in Pine Bluff, Arkansas University of Alabama at Pine Bluff Land-grant universities and colleges

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a Public University, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Founded in 1873, it is the second oldest public college or univer ...

1873 establishments in Arkansas Buildings and structures in Pine Bluff, Arkansas Education in Jefferson County, Arkansas Tourist attractions in Pine Bluff, Arkansas Universities and colleges established in 1873