Silas Snow has the distinction of being UCA’s longest serving president. He became president on October 29, 1953 and served until June 30, 1975. It has been said of Snow that he personally hired every faculty and staff member from the day he was hired until he retired. UCA went through two name changes while Snow was president. When he became president UCA was known as Arkansas State Teachers College or ASTC. This institution operated under the ASTC banner longer than any other of its four names. Snow said the name implied that the institution was primarily a “teacher” institution to the exclusion of other fields of study. Snow lobbied to have ASTC’s name Changed to State College of Arkansas, in order to portray the school as broader in scope than just a teachers college. The name change was effective on January 18, 1967 when ASTC officially became State College of Arkansas. Snow also saw to it the the school would change names once more before he left his position.
He campaigned hard for the name change and after careful scrutiny by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education the change in name was recommended. On January 21, 1975 State College of Arkansas became the University of Central Arkansas. Snow served UCA until June 30, 1975.