(a) The board of any college and the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board may establish and maintain an alternate retirement plan which shall authorize the purchase of contracts providing retirement and death benefits for staff members and employees of the Division of Higher Education.
(b) Under the plan, staff members and division employees shall contribute, to the extent authorized or required, toward the purchase of the contracts, which shall be issued to and become the property of the participants.
(c) The board of any college which elects to establish and maintain an alternate retirement plan and the Director of the Division of Higher Education, if it elects to establish and maintain a plan, shall have authority to administer the plan and to perform or authorize the performance of all such functions as may be reasonably appropriate in its administration.