(a) The Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas is authorized to establish and operate, as a part thereof, a campus to be known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, consolidating and incorporating therein the facilities of the state institution formerly known as Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College which, together with its board of trustees, was abolished as a separate institution effective July 1, 1972.
(b)
(1) The board of trustees shall maintain and operate the campus at Pine Bluff as a major campus of the University of Arkansas, offering at that location the highest possible quality of higher educational programs, and shall provide for the sound growth and improvement in the quality of the academic programs.
(2) The board shall continue to offer programs providing opportunities for those young people in Arkansas who are culturally, socially, and economically disadvantaged as well as programs attractive to students from other groups, and the composition of the administration, faculty, and staff shall reflect these purposes.