Board member's daughter takes on role of UCA attorney

Katie Henry, formerly Katie Hinkle, began her new role as associate general counsel for the University of Central Arkansas Monday morning.

Henry is the daughter of UCA Board of Trustees member Kay Hinkle, but UCA President Lu Hardin said this was not something he or the university would use to discriminate against her.

"Some people have asked because of the fire storm that is going on right now concerning benefits why I would hire a board member's daughter," Hardin said Tuesday. "And the answer is there was need. We needed to fill this position, she is extremely qualified and her background is outstanding."

According to Hardin, Henry graduated summa cum laude from UCA in December 2002 and immediately accepted a full-time position in the school's admissions office, two years before Hinkle was appointed to the board. She held that position for seven months.

"Katie was one of our best admissions officers and we begged her to stay, but she decided to attend law school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where she excelled and was on the dean's list every semester," Hardin said. "I told her that she would have a job waiting for her when she came back."

Before Henry was hired, Tom Courtway, who serves as general counsel, was the only attorney employed by the university. Hardin said a few months ago the administration decided Courtway needed help with the workload.

"We had a need for depositions and we had a meeting to decide who we needed to call and we had confidence in Katie and called her and asked if she would be interested," Hardin said. "She did indicate that she would love to come down and work on a university campus and of course we were thrilled."

Upon graduation from law school, Henry worked with a law firm in Fayetteville, where she gained two years' experience before accepting the $70,000-per-year position at UCA, Hardin said.

Although UCA is under a hiring freeze, Hardin said the administration has recently hired several "critical-need" positions, ranging from associate general counsel to computer instructors to academic outreach.

"We have hired seven new positions in the past few weeks and we've replaced 35 positions, so this (Henry's job) wasn't an exception to a hiring freeze," Hardin said. "The hiring freeze means you just have to get approval from the next level. And this was not something we were going to put off."

Hardin said Tuesday the school did not publicly advertise for this position because he already had Henry in mind but said 99 percent of the school's positions are advertised. He added the university is not required by law or board policy to advertise every position.

As far as the legality of hiring the relative of a board member, Hardin said there is no conflict, although recent changes have been made to prevent certain university employees from hiring family members.

"The law changed recently to preclude a president, provost or dean from hiring a relative, but does not preclude a board member's relative from being hired," Hardin said.

According to Jack Gillean, vice president of administration for UCA, Henry's job tasks will include assisting Courtway with some of his duties and working essentially half of the time with the UCA Foundation by helping the staff with development.

(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)