By Pam Brown Courtney
Fitz Hill: A Man With A Vision to Unify and Empower the Community
Exclusive inclusive, all students are welcome to Arkansas Baptist College
Signs of commitment to serve and empower the community are showing up all around 1621 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. That’s where purple and white buildings showcase the connection of Arkansas Baptist College to the community. It’s the work of Fitz Hill, Ph.D., president of the school. He is the reason behind the community transformation. As he takes the lead to guide Arkansas Baptist College to fulfill its mission, he also hopes others will share his vision and come on board to support his plan for community empowerment.
To help the community clearly see the plan, Dr. Hill recently launched “Vision 20/20 Clearly Focused On Growing Hope.” As he works to bring the community together, fulfillment of a vision for community growth, education and prosperity becomes more evident.
“I’ve been here, six years. I came here as a humble servant with God’s vision. I call it GIV. Not HIV, but GIV: God Inspired Vision. I’m infected to be a blessing to the community as Jesus did when he walked this earth. So this is a vision that God has explicitly expressed to me is that He sends blessings not to me but to go through me. That’s been my whole intention ever since I’ve been here, to be a blessing to the students and to the community we serve. God has placed provision. That’s what you see taking place in this community. Identifying the problems, coming up with tangible solutions that can empower people. That’s what we are trying to do. It’s been a struggle, but we’re on a journey and God has really showed up and worked here in many, many ways. His blessings to us let me know that in order to get a miracle you need a crisis. When I arrived here in 2006 there was a crisis and what you see today is a miracle.”
With the Arkansas Baptist College board approval, the college purchased the Wheels and Grills carwash on Martin Luther King Dr. That was on a corner known for being one of the most dangerous spots in Little Rock. Stabbing incidents, robberies and a bundle of assaults was most of what was known about that corner. “You can’t attract students to a community if it’s not safe. Here’s a problem. I’m not going to run from it. I went back to the board and said first thing we’re going to have to do is rebuild this campus. We’re going to have to also involve the community.”
So, the first convert for the community empowerment plan showed up in the form of a purple and white carwash. A $100,000 renovation project started the revival. With a focus on improving the community surrounding the campus for students to feel welcomed, a creative focus on entrepreneurship emerged.
“We could use the car wash as a way to help us rebuild our community,” Hill said. “So, take a dime of every quarter to help buy boarded up homes in our community. We’ve purchased 45 boarded up houses and lots since I’ve been here. The car wash kind of started everything and it has been a blessing to us. So, what I’m saying is that we’re going to reinvest the money back in the community.”
If the proof is in the pudding, then what Hill is saying can be proven at The Bistro, Arkansas Baptist’s new dining facility that is open to the public. “Now, every Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. you can come here and eat after church; come here and invest here so we can put that money back into the community.”
Hill says that after the Civil Rights integration, African Americans’ spending dollars dispersed from the African American community. “I’m trying to create that hub again,” he said. That’s why we are focusing on entrepreneurship, community empowerment, and fiscal responsibility. All of those things we are trying to do as an institution in order to provide leadership for our community.
“We have to expand our boundaries, but we need to be inclusive where many higher education institutions are exclusive,” Hill continues. “In 1884, our mission was removing ignorance from the sons and daughters of former slaves and we’ve kept tied to that true mission. I want to let everybody in because that’s what Jesus would do. I believe in order to clean a fish you have to catch it first. So by getting them here and exposing them to opportunities and to educational things that nobody ever shared with them, I think that’s the way to go. So yes we are an institution of higher learning, but we also have a G.E.D. program for dropouts because I believe a drop out will drop in somewhere. And if you don’t engage them, what do you think they’re going to do? I tell my staff all the time if you are not here to wash the feet of our students, please resign or go get another job. We’re here to be servants. If we don’t have students, they don’t need my staff or me. We’re empowered by empowering our students. That’s what this institution is all about. That’s the foundation of Arkansas Baptist College. We’re exclusively inclusive. We want them all. If you can go to Harvard, Yale, University of Arkansas, that’s great. I just want you to be in school.”
So what is it that anybody can do to be on board of this community empowerment locomotive? “When you see students left out of the education process, that’s when you think Arkansas Baptist College and our ability to meet the need of our students,” Hill said. “People always say, what’s your graduation rate, I say I’m focused initially on my opportunity rate. I said I’m going to give everybody an opportunity. Higher education now has taken a whole different focus. In the 1920s and 30s we were more concerned about the outcome of the individual we were raising and not so much about the metrics. So, I’m saying, right now how can I change one person and let that one person go back to the Delta and change a person in their community. I want us [Arkansas Baptist] to fill like a family. I mean when we got here, we had a hundred and fifty students, and this fall we had 1,193. Obviously God is truly blessing that word to get out for people to come here. When we came here we didn’t have these buildings. People don’t commit to buildings. People commit to people. I want the inside first to be what people are attracted to, not the outside. I can’t get distracted by fatal attractions. I can’t go somewhere because I think it’s easy or it’s better. God is providing on this journey and what you see is not Fitz, its God. But Fitz is a person who is obedient to God’s word.”
