Ryburn Honored With Presentation

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   The University of Arkansas at Monticello's Board of Visitors met Oct. 4 to discuss a lengthy agenda. Agriculture Professor Robert Stark headlined the meeting with an unexpected presentation. 

   Stark presented Bennie Ryburn III with a sideboard that once adorned a Ford pickup truck provided to the Arkansas Agriculture & Mechanic Agriculture Department by Ryburn Motor Company. An identical mate to the board will be hung in the Agriculture Building as recognition of the longstanding support provided by the Ryburn Family. 

   "One family has provided long-term support in many forms," Stark said.  "Thirty years ago, November of 1975, the UAM Animal and Plant Science Building was dedicated.  Legislative appropriations for constructing this facility were guided by State Representative Bennie Ryburn, Jr. of Monticello."   

   The UAM Division of Agriculture serves the Arkansas agriculture industry consisting statewide of 47,500 farms covering 14.4 million acres and generating agricultural production worth $7.5 billion in 2004. 

   UAM was established in 1909 as the Fourth District Agriculture School and enrolled its first students studying agriculture in 1910. 

   "The Fourth District Agriculture School eventually became a four-year institution, Arkansas Agricultural & Mechanical College, in 1925," Stark said. "The agriculture curriculum preceded all current programs of study.  It is even older than the School of Forest Resources by 20 years." 

   The college continued under the Arkansas A & M name until 1971 when it was added to the University of Arkansas System and AR A & M was dissolved. 

   "The Southeast Arkansas region has been a major supporter of the agriculture program over the past 96 years and graduates of the UAM Division of Agriculture can be found throughout the Arkansas agriculture industry," Stark said. 

   Aside from the presentation, business took place as usual at the meeting. Provost David Ray discussed a number of topics with the visitors including the new ROTC program. 

   "We have 11 people on this campus who are a part of the ROTC program," Ray said. "The students are signing up through the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and paying tuition to them." 

   Ray also discussed the current 24-hour requirement for a minor and the need for it to be shortened. 

   "It's really important that we consider going to an 18-hour minor," he said. "This will give students more flexibility."

   Ray said he thought UAM was off to an exciting fall and that everyone was invigorated.

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