Former UA Trustee Funds Teaching Auditorium Makeover

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A gift of $350,000 to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture will be used to update a teaching auditorium on the Fayetteville campus, according to U of A Vice President for Agriculture Milo Shult.

The donors are H.L. Hembree III, a former chairman of the U of A System’s board of trustees, and his wife, Janelle.

The auditorium, which will be named the H.L. Hembree Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Auditorium, is in the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building, which was formerly named the Animal Science Building. It will include up-to-date computer-assisted teaching aids, Shult said.

The UA Department of Animal Science shares the AFLS Building with administrative offices of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the Division’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

The 144-seat auditorium has not been remodeled since construction of the Animal Science Building in 1964. It will be one of 12 new "technology classrooms" made possible by gifts to the Bumpers College Classrooms for Tomorrow initiative as part of the University’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century.

"Janelle and I are pleased to help enhance the learning environment for students in the Bumpers College," Hembree said. "We have always been extremely grateful for the excellent educations our sons received as animal science and agricultural business majors at the University, and especially (former Animal Science Department Head) Dr. Paul Noland’s and former Dean Glen Hardy’s personal involvement and encouragement of them and our family. We also have greatly benefited from the Division of Agriculture’s help with our Registered Angus operation — Sugar Hill Farms."

Shult said, "We are delighted that the H.L. Hembree Auditorium will bear the name of one who was a visionary leader on the University’s board of trustees and who is an ardent supporter of the University and the Division of Agriculture’s research and extension programs."

Hembree is formerly of Ft. Smith where he was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Arkansas-Best Corporation. He is currently chairman of Sugar Hill Farms. The U of A System’s Division of Agriculture includes the statewide Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. Many Division faculty members have joint appointments as teaching faculty in the Bumpers College.

"The Division’s statewide mission includes support for higher education on this campus and other campuses on which our faculty are based," Shult said. "Our research and extension programs are greatly enhanced by the partnership of the Division and the Bumpers College."

The gift counts toward the U of A’s Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. The Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College have raised $56 million in gifts and pledges, which is 81 percent of their combined goal of $69.3 million by June 30, 2005.