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Here's my recap on the subject to the best of my recollection. Someone, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong or if you have more info to add. I would be happy for you to.

2004 - OA, a private business, is struggling for money to stay afloat. Lu Hardin and UCA, a publically financed institution, offer a "home" to the magazine because they can't afford a place of their own. Somewhere around this time period UCA "loans" OA $700,000 dollars to once again help them keep their head above water. Warwick Sabin, a person of some kind of title at UCA, quits UCA and becomes editor at OA (I thought then the fish was starting to smell).

Sabin decides OA needs its business headquarters in Little Rock instead of the place that threw OA a bouy (smell just got a little stronger).

Forward to present day - some kind of irregularity is exposed between the publisher, who founded the OA, and a female employee (draw your own conclusions here - I could care less what they are/were doing). Over the last two or three days both the LCD and ADG have articles stating that OA still owes UCA $700,000 (I put the number in numerical form to emphasize what a huge amount of taxpayer's money that is) insinuating that OA has not paid back one penny of the loan much less what should be a hefty amount of interest ( the smell has me now holding my nose).

Wed., 7-18-12: in today's LCD:



This smell just caused me to throw up.

How anyone can not be irate about this whole ordeal please explain to me why I should be happy about it. IMO, it's high time to call in our marker, not really caring if OA goes belly up like dead fish do, and get our - mine and your taxpayer's money - back here to UCA to hopefully be put to better use than that of playing financial savior to private businesses.

Don't go away just yet, here's the real stench that apparently we might just have to live with for a long time. This also from the LCD today:



Well, there goes just about any chance of getting our money back anytime soon (taking into account Sabin has/had any allegiance to UCA in remitting the loan).

So here is my request: To old bear - what did/does the BOT know of this episode. What does the board plan on doing about getting our money back?

To Deborah Hale-Shelton - to coin a phrase from today's younger generation - You go girl!. I can honestly say I cannot think of one reason to defend UCA on this matter. Nothing about it is right. We would like to know the contents of the contract - public school, public business. IMO, the meat has rotted off the bone.

The original plan was for the OA to become a UCA publication but President Hardin decided to keep it private. The University provides free office space and free support of various kind. The original loan by the University may has been for more than $700,000 and they were discussing writing it off but president meadors would not agree to that, now that he is gone, they may write the rest off.

The OA is a good Southern Magazine but HB is right, UCA should get it money back and some compensation for the space and support (notice that OA is paying for the space in Little Rock).

So you're telling me that a UCA president has the power/authority to loan out collectedly public money to a private business without input from the BOT? WOW. We should not only be mad as hell about that option but also embarrassed that we would allow it.

HB don't know what Lu did or didn't do without BOT authority, just what occurred. I would think legally Board authority would have to be given to loan money to a non-university entity.

If OA has office space in Little Rock, they apparently don't need to be playing in our sandbox anymore.

What ever happened to raise the recent stink, did it happen here or did it happen at the Little Rock office? Or is that even important?

The interns work in Main at UCA. The alcohol issues is just the rue for the public. Folks in Main say that the issues are totally different from what we are seeing in the papers.

The only issue I'm concerned about is the $700,000, without interest undoubtably, that a private business owes a public university but yet that business has no definite time line in paying the money back. If there is then let's see it and I'll shut up. I don't think I'll have to worry about that though according to past practices of knowing what is going on here at this university.

- from an article in the Log Cabin Democrat

C'mon...this is waaaaaay to easy to have a good laugh at!

http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/pub78Search ... sults=6937
&postDateTo=&ein1=&state=AR&dispatchMethod=searchCharities&postDateFrom=&country=US&city=&
searchChoice=pub78&indexOfFirstRow=4500&sortColumn=name&resultsPerPage=250&names=&zipCode=&deductibilityal

77-0635463 Oxford American Literary Project Inc. Conway AR United States PC

IRS shows OA as a tax-exempt org as of 7/9/12. "PC" means "public charity".

Pretty sure I found data prevously that said OA is a 501(c)(3) charity. Not exactly right to refer to OA as a "private business".

Obviously not "public" as in state university; still not a privately owned business as normally thought of.
However, Even tax-exemps have to earn their way in the world either through product sales or selling their mission to donors.

{Sorry...cannot get url link to work right...}

Regardless of what adjective is used to describe what kind of business the OA is, the bottom line is Sabin admits they owe UCA $700,000. That's the part that I'm concerned about. That's a lot of potential scholarships, in a perfect world. Like I've asked previously, did the BOT know of this gift/loan at the time Hardin did it or did the Board find out about it after the fact? I'd also still like to know if a UCA president has the authority to make such a loan without authorization from either the board, our legal counsel, etc? If not, then this could happen again eventually.

Thank you Mr. Massey,this is a good start, don't forget the other $355,000.00


$345,000 pledged to repay UCA

CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas is going to get back some of the $700,000 it has lent to The Oxford American literary magazine.

Rick Massey, chairman of the magazine’s board of directors, said late Thursday that he is “pledging [The Oxford American] to make [five] annual contributions of $69,000, beginning immediately and following on each anniversary of the first payment.”

Let use some of that money to charter buses for students to Oxford. Go Bears!

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Glad to see that but still skeptical with the word "pledge" in the statement. I'm pretty sure a pledge is not contractual in meaning. Twelve years to make the first payment back with a pledge doesn't make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Guess we'll know in five years what the meaning of "pledge" is in this instance.

The Oxford American is a nationally respected publication that is considered by many to be substantial in its contributions to literature, the arts, and southern culture. When approached about the prospects of moving the OA to UCA President Hardin was confident and hopeful that the move would be a public relations and media coup because of the respect the publication had nationally. Lu envisioned being able to raise money for UCA from successful literary icons for "saving" such a meaningful literary work. The initial cost number provided to the Board was around 300,000. To have such a distinquished, nationally recognized publication headquartered at the campus, that seemed reasonable. We were lauded as visionaries and thanked publicly for saving the OA. Their recently dismissed Editor has always been an issue. I have always liked him, like most creative people he may be a little quirky. Warwick has always been adamant about the OA paying back those funds. So President Hardin thought it made sense to provide the funds to save a significant literary venue and move it to UCA. That was done with Board knowledge. That initial cost was reported to be 300,000. It was universally proclaimed to be a great move. Obviously that cost grew. Rick Massey is a UCA alum, Chairman of the OA Board, and as good a man as I know. If he uses the word "pledge" it is etched in stone and it will happen exactly as he states or sooner. A decision was made to salvage a meaningful, universally respected publication. The cost was initially 300,000, apparently advances have raised that amount to the current level. President Hardin intended to raise the funds for that initial expense. He made contact with and may have even visited with the very successful MS author who helped create it but who dropped support because of issues with the direction/leadership of the publication. That is all I know. I can get specific answers to specific questions.

Good info. It always amazes me how more info on subjects involving UCA come from you as opposed to Wingo Hall. Thanks for not being afraid to answer some questions when posed.

I do have a couple of direct questions from you. The articles in the papers insinuate that no interest is being figured in the repayments to UCA. Is that correct? If so, why?

Has UCA learned their lesson on bailing out a company whether a private business or a charitable business? Undoubtably the effort to keep the OA solvent with UCA being a beneficiary of said effort failed miserably, imo. i.e., I think we should take care of educating students as opposed to saving a business who someone thought was worth saving at the expense of scholarships and possibly other criteria beneficial to the students.

To make my case somewhat for the students, it was reported in the ADG just this morning that UCA, along with ASU, has the highest athletic fees in the state at $17 per credit hour. Student fees pay for 54.5%, the fourth highest rate in the state out of 10 universities, of our athletic budget according to the article. I just think that is embarrassing for the university knowing we have money available for loaning out to private entities but yet we keep increasing student fees to support activities here on our own campus that appear to be financially lacking in order to maintain status quo.