In May, the Walton family announced plans to build a STEM college on the site of the old Walmart home office. The initial announcement said the school would launch with an undergraduate class of 500 students, eventually growing to 1,500 over time.
A document from a recruiting firm seeking applicants for the school’s first president includes several previously unreported details.
Here are some of the details included in the information packet:
The first class of students is expected in August 2028, but funding to hire faculty and staff will be made available “immediately.”
The president is expected to start work in summer or fall of this year and must live in the Bentonville area full-time. Initially, the president will report “to a small group of family and advisors,” with oversight eventually shifting to an independent board of trustees.
The school will be a nonprofit.
The school is described as an “unprecedented partnership of five [Walton] family members,” and the scale of their investments is referred to only as an “extraordinary financial commitment.”
Preliminary designs estimate the required space for the school at approximately 7.5 acres and just under 360,000 gross square feet, which would include academic and administrative space, student services, housing and dining for students, campus operations, and parking. The old home office site is 65 acres, according to Talk Business & Politics.
The school will initially offer bachelor’s degrees and certificate programs through a “flexible, stackable curriculum.”
Initial education tracks will be computing, AI, and information technology; entrepreneurship and technical management; automation, robotics, and logistics; and health/medicine and technology.
