The Morning News Dr. Otto Loewer, dean Of the University of Arkansas College of Engineering, on Friday told a legislative committee that one of the goals of the institution is to quadruple Genesis.
Genesis is a business incubator that helps fledging technologybased companies with startup.
The program is based in the UA Engineering Research Center in south Fayetteville. Loewer told lawmakers that the College of Engineering has in recent years turned out three times as many engineers as are working in Arkansas, suggesting there aren't enough in-state jobs available. Loewer said the UA wants to make Genesis self-sufficient and generate even more jobs. Companies with a connection to the program create, on average, more than one new job in Arkansas every five working days, according to Loewer He made the remarks in a report to the legislative Joint Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology, which met at the research center on Friday. Among the questions before the commission, she said, are procedures for handling requests for electronic records, what charges might be appropriate and whether the government should provide computers for the public to access electronically stored records.