General Information
Mission
” The University of Arkansas is determined to build a better world by providing transformational opportunities and skills, promoting an inclusive and diverse culture, nurturing creativity, and solving problems through research and discovery, all in service to Arkansas”.
Vision
” The University of Arkansas represents the best of public higher education, advancing Arkansas while building a better world”.
HISTORY
The 1871 establishment of the first public university in Arkansas — a state still ravaged and rankled by four years of civil war — might seem to us today to be an act more foolhardy than full of hope.
The founding of the university, however, was one of the few achievements during the state’s Reconstruction era that brought former political and military rivals together.
Over the course of its history, the university has continued to bring the citizens of the state together by raising educational standards, improving business and economy, and giving Arkansans a hardy mascot around which to rally.
Read more about our rich history and stop by our interactive timeline for a walk back through time.
More than 145 years later, the university’s enrollment has passed 27,000, and its students represent all 50 states and 120 countries. The university is the state’s foremost partner and resource for education and economic development. It serves as the major provider of graduate-level instruction in Arkansas. And its public service activities reach every county in Arkansas, throughout the nation, and around the world.
BUILDING OF OLD MAIN
The Board of Trustees appointed a building committee to make plans for construction of a permanent building, a building that would, in essence, be the university.
After a visit to the University of Illinois to see its new main building, the committee sought out its architect, John Van Osdel, the premier architect of Chicago, to purchase plans for the same building at Arkansas. Van Osdel said his original plans had been destroyed in the great Chicago fire but that he would produce new drawings for $1,000.
Soon, a contract was let and construction begun on the building. Its design is known as Second Empire, with some Italianate touches. The most obvious design elements are the five blocks of the front — the middle entrance, two recessed walls and the two towers — and its mansard roof.
Nearly all of the construction materials came from Arkansas: the sandstone foundation, the bricks fired on the grounds, the limestone window sills and lintels, and wood milled from Ozark forests.
It was finished in 1875 and dedicated on a warm August evening with an all-day picnic spread upon the workbenches in the shadow of the south tower. As the day’s light faded, lanterns and bricks soaked in oil were lit and fireworks fired.
It was and remains a building of aspiration, the largest in the state when completed with two towers reaching skyward. Today, those same towers serve as beacons to travelers from all entrances to Fayetteville and the building has become a symbol of higher education in Arkansas.
Did you know…
- The building at the University of Illinois upon which Old Main was based had its towers flip-flopped, giving rise to a myth that Union supporters switched the towers here so that the taller bell tower would be on the north side, a symbol of their victory.
- When built, Old Main had no electricity, no running water and — believe it or not — no Internet. It does now.
- So many of our academic programs at the university were first taught in Old Main that it is sometimes referred to as the “mother” of the university.
- In the 1980s, university officials considered razing Old Main. Instead, the campus and supporters from across the state raised money to renovate the building, and it reopened in 1991 for another century of service.
Office
Contact Us
Phone: 479-575-5002
Fax: 479-575-2200
Email: parents@uark.edu
Hours of Operation
8:00am – 5:00pm