Development Phase
With step one complete and an institutional home secured for CDI, it was time to develop the curriculum and to prepare for the first session. The Des Moines group and key Arkansas people were asked to form an ad hoc committee to give guidance. The strongest admonition from the group was for a curriculum with more nuts and bolts than theory, tailored specifically for the practitioner.
Three committees were formed: 1) a general steering committee directed by Bill Fountain; 2) a certification committee directed by Ernest Whitelaw; and 3) a curriculum committee of Alton Bush and Lawson Veasey, director of the Public Administration Program and associate professor of Political Science at UCA. Judy Davis, the director of AIDC’s community development division, and Sue Bryant, director of Southwestern Bell’s economic development staff, were also involved. Dr. Reese established an internal UCA committee, and Loretta Price of his staff was appointed facilitator during the planning stage. Jay Robison gives a tremendous amount of credit to Veasey for his contribution to curriculum development. “CDI would not have happened without Lawson Veasey. We had the desire, but he put its framework together. He was the key writer of curriculum, with Alton and Ernest reviewing it, and he was key in matching individual teachers with individual curriculum segments.”
At about this same time in 1986, UCA established its Office of Corporate Relations under the direction of Bill Miller. It was transferred into the Division of Continuing Education in early 1987. All of the principles involved in creating CDI were in agreement that Miller and the Office of Corporate Relations should take charge of the daily logistical operations of CDI.
Miller was a retired Army colonel whose military skill would come in handy during skirmishes that soon ensued at UCA over funding of the Division of Continuing Education, and therefore the Office of Corporate Relations and all of the economic outreach it was to provide. Internal UCA documents indicate a mighty power struggle, but in the end, Dr. Reese prevailed and CDI would have its home in his department. He was a passionate supporter of the program through his retirement in 1993. He would be most proud of the Brewer Hegeman Conference Center complex that was dedicated March 4, 2001, since he had envisioned the building of a continuing education center during the earliest planning stages of CDI. Brewer Hegeman is where CDI classes are now held.
