Qualla: University of Arkansas-Fort Smith

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0. The university has changed its name four times, and each renaming tells a chapter in the story of a small Arkansas city reaching for something bigger. What started in 1928 as Fort Smith Junior College -- run by the public school superintendent doubling as college president and the high school principal moonlighting as dean -- has become the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, the sixth-largest university in the state. Its campus is a living arboretum with 1,182 GPS-inventoried trees representing 81 species, and standing guard at the entrance to the athletics center is a bronze leaping lion claimed to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Image: University of Arkansas - Fort Smith | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith: Four Names, One Ambition

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fort Smith Junior College operated inside borrowed high school facilities until 1950, when it incorporated as a private institution with its own governing board. In 1952, it moved to its current site. A vocational-technical division was added in 1960, and in 1965, Sebastian Count...

Image: University of Arkansas - Fort Smith | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith: A Campus That Grows

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jtpost87, CC BY-SA 4.0. The $15.5 million Windgate Art and Design building, funded by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, opened in 2015 with a letterpress and printmaking studio, a film theater, and a photography studio. The Recreation and Wellness Center, known as the RAWC, followed in 2016 with baske...

Image: Jtpost87 | CC BY-SA 4.0

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith: Bell Tower and Bronze Lion

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two landmarks define the UAFS campus skyline. The Donald W. Reynolds Bell Tower, commissioned in 1993 and dedicated in 1995, rises seven stories and is the largest free-standing belfry in the South Central United States. At the Stubblefield Center, home of the Lions basketball an...

Image: University of Arkansas - Fort Smith | CC BY-SA 3.0

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith: Rooted in the River Valley

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0. The entire UAFS campus has been designated an arboretum, with more than 69 species of trees mapped by GPS technology. The campus grounds have won national awards, including the Green Star Grand Award for Best Maintained Landscape in the Nation from the Professional Grounds Manage...

Image: University of Arkansas - Fort Smith | CC BY-SA 3.0