Tomorrow’s news today. Look to the D-G tomorrow for another University of Central Arkansas story.

It will be about the hiring yesterday of UCA graduate Katie Henry as associate legal counsel, to join Tom Courtway in the, until now, one-man counsel’s office.

Advertisement

Henry was a 3.9 summa cum laude graduate of UCA in 2002, I was told. After graduation, she worked a school year as a full-time admissions officer. She was one of the best ever says President Lu Hardin. She decided she wanted to go to law school. At the time, Hardin said, “I told her I’d have a job for her if she ever needed it. She was that good.”

Henry got her law degree. She went to work in Fayetteville for a couple of years. UCA decided Courtway had too much work to handle on his own. Hardin didn’t post the job opening for a new legal position. It falls into a category where it wasn’t required, he said. But he says readily that he had Henry in mind for the job because of her qualifications. He asked her  if she’d be interested. She was and she was hired for $70,000. The hire is subject to future ratification of the UCA Board of Trustees.

Advertisement

Oh, I forgot. Henry’s mother, Kay Hinkle of Mountain View, is a member of the UCA Board of Trustees. She was not a member when her daughter was hired as an admissions officer and was not a member when Hardin made his offer of future employment. She became a board member in 2004. Hinkle was not present at the May meeting at which the Board voted to accelerate a $300,000 deferred compensation package for Hardin.

Hardin said, given the recent uproar about his bonuses, that some might argue that it would have been better to put off the hiring of Henry for a time. “But we needed help. We knew her. She’d worked here.” Hardin said everyone on campus “loved her work ethic and loved her to death.”

Advertisement

Hardin added, “I’ve gotten into a lot of trouble I deserved. This one I don’t.”

Arkansas Times: Your voice in the fight

Are you tired of watered-down news and biased reporting? The Arkansas Times has been fighting for truth and justice for 50 years. As an alternative newspaper in Little Rock, we are tough, determined, and unafraid to take on powerful forces. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, we are making a difference. But we can't do it without you. Join the 3,400 paid subscribers who support our great journalism and help us hire more writers. Sign up for a subscription today or make a donation of as little as $1 and help keep the Arkansas Times feisty for years to come.

Previous article Public records and Social Security Next article The Week’s Infamous Arkansan: Bob Stokes