TO CLIPS INDEX Clips for January 23, 2009


Shelton: Big GOP cuts would devastate UA

Arizona Daily Star 1/23/09

State budget cuts of the magnitude presented by

Republican lawmakers would force the UA to enact

massive layoffs, shutter colleges and hike tuition to

unforeseen levels, the institution's president said

Thursday during an Arizona Board of Regents

meeting.  Moments after an estimated 950 students,

faculty members, staffers, business leaders and parents

rallied at the meeting to protest the severity of the proposed

cuts, University of Arizona President Robert Shelton said

the cuts being discussed are equal to about half of the

total university jobs funded by the state.

 

More than 900 protest proposed budget cuts to higher education

Tucson Citizen 1/22/09

 It was standing room only in the Student Memorial Center at the

University of Arizona as more than 900 students, faculty members

and business leaders turned out for the Arizona Board of Regents

meeting Thursday to protest proposed higher-education budget cuts.

It was the largest crowd in recent history at a regents' meeting, dwarfing

the groups of 200- to 400-plus people who protested tuition increases

in the past, university officials said.

 

University leaders decry proposed cuts

Arizona Daily Sun 1/23/09

 The state's three university presidents gave dire forecasts

Thursday to the Arizona Board of Regents in briefings on

possible cuts under state funding proposals.  Northern Arizona

University President John Haeger said proposed, potential cuts

of more than $31 million would cut deeply, requiring furlough dates

for faculty, staff and administrators, layoffs and administrative cutbacks.

Haeger said they also would cut an important initiative to the state

 -- to develop health professions programs that serve the broader state.

 

Proposed Budget Cuts Draw Record Crowd to Arizona Regents' Meeting

The Chronicle of Higher Education  1/22/09

 A legislative proposal to cut more than $600-million from the Arizona university

system’s budget over the next 18 months drew nearly 1,000 people to a meeting

of the Arizona Board of Regents today, a record crowd, the University of Arizona’s

UA News site reported.  The proposal, by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee,

would slash $243-million in the remainder of the current fiscal year and $388-million

more in the 2010 fiscal year.

 

Our Opinion: Budget query: Will Brewer walk her talk on education?

Tucson Citizen 1/23/09

 As Gov. Jan Brewer outlined her plans to downsize state government,

there were hopeful signs that she will not decimate Arizona's education

system.  Although Brewer was understandably nonspecific Wednesday

in her inaugural address, she did drop hints that she may put a higher

value on Arizona's education system than vociferous budget-slashers

in the Legislature apparently do.

 

Hundreds pack meeting to protest university budget cuts

ABC15.com  1//22/09

 More than 800 people piled into the University of Arizona student

union Thursday to speak out against hundreds of millions of dollars 

in budget cuts to the state's three major universities.  The Arizona Board

of Regents meeting was standing room only as student, parents and leaders

blasted the $600 million in budget cuts proposed over the next two years

by state lawmakers.

 

Hundreds protest proposed cuts to UA

KVOA News 4  1/22/09

An overflow crowd attended a meeting of Arizona's Board

of Regents this afternoon at the University of Arizona. 

People from across the state came to protest a legislative

proposal to cut $250 million out of Arizona's three state

universities between now and June 30.  Critics say that

would represent a 35 to 40 percent cut.

 

Proposed UA budget cuts draw angry protest at Regents' meeting

KOLD News 13  1/22/09

 State regents heard angry words Thursday over proposed

budget cuts at the University of Arizona. "We cannot and will

not stand for this," said UA student body president Tommy

Bruce to applause. Regents got an earful from students,

business and community leaders who turned out at a meeting

to condemn proposed state budget cuts.  The U of A stands to

lose more than $100 dollars alone, or about 40 percent of its budget.

 

University leaders decry proposed cuts

KSWT 13/AP 1/22/09

 TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The state's three university presidents

gave dire forecasts Thursday to the Arizona Board of Regents

in briefings on possible cuts under state funding proposals. 

Presidents of the University of Arizona, Arizona State University

and Northern Arizona University all said that if cuts proposed by

key Republican legislators as options to a state budget crunch

are instituted, whole departments and colleges will have to be

eliminated.

 

'Call to audience' turns into battle against budget cuts

Arizona Daily Wildcat 1/23/09

 The Arizona Board of Regent meeting Thursday looked more

like a public protest than a board meeting. An estimated 900 students,

faculty and community members attended the meeting in the north

ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center to protest the budget-

cut proposals by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.  Some attendees

held up black and white banners reading expressions like "Goodbye quality

education," "Keep Our State Alive" and "40 percent = Death."

 

Regents plan for 'proposed' future

Arizona Daily Wildcat 1/23/09

 In the wake of $600 million in budget cuts proposed by the Joint

Legislative Budget Committee, the Arizona Board of Regents, approved

an exception to increase the limit on full-time non-resident undergraduate

enrollment from 30 percent to 40 percent.  The meeting Thursday in the

north ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center was the first step to

try and resolve the financial crisis facing Arizona higher education.

 

Regents meet amid rage over university
budget cuts

KTAR 1/22/09 

Proposals to slash up to $600 million from Arizona's
university system in the next two years could cause
damage that would take years to fix, Regent Dennis
DeConcini said Thursday. The comments of the
former U.S. senator came as the Board of Regents
prepared to meet in Tucson and discuss the cuts,
which generated outrage in the university community
after they were suggested last week by state Sen.
Russell Pearce and Rep. John Kavanagh,
Republicans who chair the appropriations committees
in their respective houses. DeConcini and Regents
President Fred Boice said they hoped business and
community leaders and the general public would join
them in opposing the drastic cuts.  "To threaten these
kind of reductions is just absolutely catastrophic,"
said DeConcini.

 

Arizona State University Budget May Be
Slashed

Associated Content  1/22/09

Arizona State University is the largest institution of
higher learning in Arizona. ASU has four campuses
in the Phoenix area, and had over 67,000 students
in fall 2008. ASU was ranked 121st out of the top
universities by US News and World Report, and
was also ranked #4 in the up and coming schools.
Unfortunately, all that may change soon, as budget
cuts have been proposed by the Arizona state
legislature that would slash funding by 40% of the
level that it had in fiscal year 2008. Michael Crow,
president of Arizona State University, sent a letter
to students Wednesday urging them to write their
representatives to reduce the magnitude of the
proposed cuts.

 

High numbers for High Country Conference
Center

Inside NAU 1/22/09

The High Country Conference Center at Flagstaff
reached some high plateaus since it opened its
shiny doors last spring. "The conference center is
doing better than expected," said Jane Kuhn,
associate vice president for Enrollment
Management and Student Affairs. "We expected
to pay a $110,249 management subsidy as the
conference center got rolling, but instead we
profited beyond the payback by more than
$45,000." Notable events at the center included
the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra's gala with
the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Flagstaff Medical
Center's Turquoise Ball and the 35th Western
Regional Honors Council Conference.

 

Peace Corps ranks NAU among 'Top 25'
universities

Inside NAU 1/22/09

NAU has once again secured a spot on the annual
list of Peace Corps' "Top Peace Corps Volunteer
Producing Colleges and Universities," with 23
alumni currently serving as Peace Corps
volunteers. NAU is No. 18 in the rankings for
medium-sized universities, and alumni are
currently serving in 17 of the 76 countries where
the Peace Corps operates. The highest
concentration of Lumberjacks is in Bulgaria,
Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala
and Paraguay, with the majority of volunteers
working in business, health, education and the
environment. Michael Wagner, Regent's
professor of forestry, volunteered in the Peace
Corps from 1973 to 1975 in Ghana. He says
NAU nominates many volunteers for the Peace
Corps with "scarce skills," in areas such as
agriculture, forestry and nursing.