Dr. Paul B. Beran, chancellor at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, has been selected as one of 23 notable alumni from Stephen F. Austin State University who are being honored with banners hanging along the university’s historic Vista Drive.

 

The recognition honors Beran’s service as a higher education administrator in Oklahoma, Massachusetts and Missouri, as well as his time as a faculty member at several Texas institutions.

 

The banners are 30 inches wide and 60 inches tall and will be displayed during the entire year in commemoration of SFA’s 90th anniversary. 

 

Beran said it was “an honor to receive this recognition.”

 

“I think it’s important for current students at any higher education institution to see alumni honored for the contributions they’ve made to society,” he said.

 

Beran graduated from Stephen F. Austin in 1978 with a bachelor’s in English and political science and in 1980 with a master’s in English. He also holds a doctorate in higher education curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M University, who honored him with a College of Education Honored Alumni Award in 2005.

 

He has also been awarded the Fort Smith Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Committee’s Golden Hands Award, the Leadership Fort Smith Community Leadership Award for Education and the Silver Beaver Award for his work with the Boy Scouts.

 

Beran, who became the UAFS chancellor on July 1, 2006, boasts a variety of accomplishments since his arrival at the university, including creating a Chancellor’s Coalition for the Visual Arts, overseeing an expansion that more than doubled the size of Boreham Library and tripled the dorm occupancy on campus, supervising the transition of the UAFS athletic program from junior college sports to the NCAA Division II, and completing a UAFS Foundation Capitol Campaign bringing in over $56 million.

 

Prior to his tenure at UAFS, Beran was the president of Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

 

Other notable alumni honored by Stephen F. Austin include Dr. Nancy Dickey, former president of the American Medical Association; Bill Owens, former governor of Colorado; and Grammy-, Golden Globe-, and Academy Award-winning composer Will Jennings, who has written music for movies including “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Titanic.”