University of Arkansas at Little Rock

History

Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the institution became a private four-year university under the name Little Rock University in 1957. It returned to public status in 1969 when it merged with the University of Arkansas System under its present name. As of 2025, the former campus of Little Rock Junior College is used by Philander Smith University.

In 1975, UA Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law was established. The university also began offering graduate and professional work in 1975, and the Graduate School was created in 1977.

In 1986, the UA Little Rock public radio station KUAR went on the air.

In 2000, UA Little Rock was classified as a doctoral university/research intensive in the National Carnegie categories of institutions of higher education.

In 2002, the university celebrated its 75th anniversary.

In 2005, UA Little Rock opened its on-campus intercollegiate athletic arena, a gift from Jackson T. Stephens.

On May 2, 2012, the university dedicated its $15 million Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences. The center facilitates collaboration among researchers at UA Little Rock, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas, and the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research.

In 2013, UA Little Rock opened the George W. Donaghey Emerging Analytics Center to provide visual data services for regional institutions.

In January 2018, the Windgate Center of Art + Design opened. Funded by a $20.3 million gift from the Windgate Charitable Foundation, the center includes 64,000 square feet of classrooms, studios, and art galleries.

Academics

The university offers more than 100 undergraduate degree programs and 60 graduate degree programs including graduate certificates, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees, through both traditional and online courses. Students attend classes in one of the university's three new colleges and a law school:

College of Business, Health, and Human Services

College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education

Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

William H. Bowen School of Law

Student life

The student life at UA Little Rock is typical of public universities in the United States. It is characterized by student-run organizations and affiliation groups that support social, academic, athletic, and religious activities and interests. Some of the services offered by the UA Little Rock Office of Campus Life are intramural sports and fitness programs, leadership development, peer tutoring, student government association, student support programs including groups for non-traditional and first-generation students, a student-run newspaper, and fraternity and sorority life. The proximity of the UA Little Rock campus to downtown Little Rock enables students to take advantage of a wide array of recreational, entertainment, educational, internship, and employment opportunities that are not available anywhere else in Arkansas.

Campus living

UA Little Rock provides a variety of on-campus living options for students, including traditional resident rooms and multiple-bedroom apartments. The university has four residence halls on the eastern side of the campus and the University Village Apartment Complex on the southern side of campus.

On-campus housing options include private rooms, suites, apartments, and pod-style living. Some accommodations include full kitchens, laundry facilities, WiFi, a theatre, study rooms, reserved parking, and an outdoor pool.

The university also features a variety of on-campus dining options: Trojan Cafe, Hissho Sushi, Tres Habaneros, Starbucks, WOW American Eats, Common's Market, SubConnection, and Business Brew.

Athletics

UA Little Rock's 14 athletic teams are known as the Little Rock Trojans, with teams participating in the Ohio Valley Conference. Little Rock's main athletic offices are located in the Jack Stephens Center. UA Little Rock offers the following sports:

Two Little Rock teams that do not compete in the OVC are the women's swimming and diving team (Missouri Valley Conference) and wrestling (Pac-12 Conference), neither of which the OVC sponsors. Wrestling is the school's newest sport, starting in 2019, and is the first Division I program in Arkansas.

Land and buildings

The university's Center for Arkansas History and Culture is located in downtown Little Rock.

Collections and archives

On July 1, 2014, the UA Little Rock Collections and Archives division was created. The division encompasses:

Ottenheimer Library

Center for Arkansas History and Culture

Sequoyah National Research Center

Notable students and alumni

Arts & entertainment

Julie Adams (1946) – actress (film and television) best known for her role in Creature from the Black Lagoon

Dona Bailey (1975) – video game programmer and educator who developed Atari, Inc.'s 1981 arcade video game Centipede

Mike Saunders, also known as "Metal Mike" (B.S. in accounting) – accountant, singer of the Californian punk band Angry Samoans, and rock critic who is credited with coining the music genre label "heavy metal"

Symone (2017) – drag performer, model, and winner of Rupaul's Drag Race Season 13

Athletics

Kris Bankston (born 1999) – basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

Deondre Burns (born 1997) – basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

Malik Dixon – basketball player, top scorer in the 2005 Israel Basketball Premier League

Derek Fisher – former Los Angeles Lakers player and New York Knicks head coach

Lis Shoshi – Kosovan-born professional basketball player

Rayjon Tucker (2019) – professional basketball player in the NBA with Milwaukee Bucks

Education

James E. Cofer – Ed.D. alumnus, former UA Little Rock professor, and former president of both Missouri State University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe

Government & civil service

Camille Bennett – Arkansas House of Representatives, 2015–2017

Karilyn Brown – Arkansas House of Representatives, 2015–present

Matthew Brown – member of the Arkansas House of Representatives

James Richard Cheek (1957) – U.S. ambassador to El Salvador (1979–1981), Ethiopia (1985–1988), Sudan (1989–1992) and Argentina (1993–1996)

Charlie Daniels (attended) – Arkansas commissioner of state lands (1985–2001), Arkansas secretary of state (2002–2010), Arkansas state auditor (2011–2015)

Denise Jones Ennett (M.A.) – politician

Vivian Flowers (B.S. in political science) – Arkansas House of Representatives (2015–present), mayor of Pine Bluff, AR (2025–present)

Herschel Friday

Kevin Hern (MBA) – U.S. House of Representatives, 2018–

Bob Johnson (bachelor's degree in political science) – Arkansas House of Representatives (1995–2001), Arkansas Senate (2001–2011), president pro tempore of Arkansas Senate (2009–2011)

Allen Kerr (attended) – Arkansas House of Representatives (2009–2015), Arkansas Insurance Commissioner (2015–2020)

Jim Lendall (1974 Bachelor of Arts in political science and history) – Army veteran, nurse, activist, and politician, 2010 Green Party candidate for Arkansas governor

Fredrick Love (bachelor's degree in political science and master's degree in public administration) – politician

Other

Marc Perrone (attended) – labor union leader

Notable faculty

Robert Bradley – psychologist

Carolina Cruz-Neira – Spanish-Venezuelan-American computer engineer, researcher, designer, educator, and pioneer of virtual reality (VR) who is known for inventing the cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE)

Joycelyn Elders – pediatrician, vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and public health administrator who was the second woman, second person of color, and first African American to serve as surgeon general of the United States (1993–1994)

Sara Alderman Murphy – civil rights activist

Daniel R. Schwarz – professor of English literature