The house built during the 1998 school year will now be sold to a Simmons employee. We see a double benefit from taking part in this program. Not only do the students get the necessary training, but also our employees have the opportunity to buy affordable housing. Kent Davis, who heads up JBU's Construction Management program, notes that the school's registered construction company, Eagle Construction, built the house. During the course of the school year, senior level students operate as contractors, make purchases and deal with the legal issues of building a house.
Freshmen provide most of the physical construction.
JBU was recently accredited by the American Council for Construction Education and none of the other 50 accredited universities undertakes a practical project like this. Simmons is a very publicly minded company and has supported many educational efforts in the area. We are very pleased that Simmons chose to help support this program. Simmons and JBU are teaming up for another house that will be student-built during the 1999 school year. Simmons Foods, founded in 1949, is a family owned food company that employs 4,300 people in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.