TO CLIPS INDEX Clips for February 6, 2009

Community colleges consider tuition increase
The Arizona Republic 2/6/09
Maricopa Community Colleges administrators
will propose a tuition increase this month after
$15 million was cut from the district's operating
budget in December. The administration is
requesting a $5 increase in the price per credit
hour, which would take effect for the 2009-10
school year, according to Debbie Thompson,
vice chancellor of business services. Although
the measure has not yet been formally
presented to the Maricopa County Community
College District governing board, Thompson
said the administration plans to request the
increase this month. It could be approved as
early as March for the semester that begins
in August.

Science group forges on amid shrinking funds
The Arizona Republic 2/6/09
A week after the Arizona Legislature drained $22.5
million from its budget, Science Foundation Arizona's
future may hinge on whether it can persuade state
lawmakers to find new money for the startup-research
organization. The foundation will operate, as it always
has, with donations from business groups that pay
staff salaries and operating costs. The question is
whether it will have any money left to pursue its
mission of providing research grants. Chief Executive
Bill Harris said the private group's corporate backers
and board of directors remain committed to making
sure the foundation promotes research and works
to diversify the state's economy. "I'm determined to
find a way to make this work," Harris said. "It is
critical for the future and prosperity of this state."

State agency sets layoffs for today
The Arizona Republic 2/6/09
The Department of Administration, which provides
support functions for a host of state agencies, will
lay off 138 people today, a spokesman said. The
layoff represents 18 percent of the department's
staff. The department made the move this week
to achieve maximum cost savings, spokesman
Alan Ecker said. Waiting until Saturday, when a
new pay period begins, would have forced the
department to lay off an additional five people,
he said. The dozens of administrators,
accountants, custodians and maintenance
workers who lose their jobs will not get
severance.

Senate wrangles over $937 billion stimulus
Associated Press/The Arizona Republic
2/6/09
WASHINGTON - In an uncertain reach across
party lines, Senate moderates struggled for a
compromise on economic-stimulus legislation
Thursday as the government spit out grim new
jobless figures and President Barack Obama
warned of more bad news ahead. With partisan
tensions rising, several Republican attempts to
remake the bill - with higher tax cuts, lower
spending and fresh relief for homeowners -
failed on party-line votes.

ASU forges ahead on Honors College
The Arizona Republic 2/6/09 9:06 AM
ASU's Honors College has been a part of the
campus since 1988, and was among the first
honors colleges in the country. This fall, the
Barrett Honors College will also become the
first in the nation to be housed in a free-
standing campus. Amid ASU's financial
troubles and budget cuts, the new home of
the college, about five years in the works, is
set to be opened and operational by the fall
2009 semester. The Barrett Honors College
will include dorm-style housing, available to
students in suites with one to three bedrooms,
a fitness center, computer lab, amphitheater,
classrooms, outside activity courts, an amphi-
theater, a dining hall with covered terrace, a
garden and dining rooms for special events,
ASU spokeswoman Sarah Auffret said.

Arizona Water Institute latest budget casualty
Arizona Daily Sun 2/6/09
Funding for the tri-university Arizona Water Institute
has dried up, the latest casualty of the state budget
passed by lawmakers last week. But Northern
Arizona University's important water research will
continue, stated NAU officials in a press release
Thursday. The institute will close at the end of the
fiscal year. It was funded with $400,000 annually
to each school. The closure will not result in any
layoffs. Those associated with the institute will
continue with their other ongoing teaching and
research responsibilities, NAU officials stated.
The state faces a $1.6 billion budget deficit for
the current fiscal year. Funding for the institute,
formed in 2006 by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano,
was excluded in the state Legislature's deficit-
reduction bill, which was approved last week.

Obama: Stimulus means 74,000 AZ jobs
Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star
2/6/09
PHOENIX — With his economic stimulus plan
stalled in Congress, President Obama sent a
memo to Arizonans promising more than 74,000
jobs will be created or saved if the plan is approved.
The memo, released Wednesday, also claims up
to 2 million Arizonans will qualify for a tax cut of up
to $1,000 if the proposal, already approved by the
U.S. House, becomes law; 75,000 Arizona families
will be eligible for a new college tax credit; and
more than 200,000 people out of work will get
an extra $100 a month in jobless benefits.

Editorial Opinion: State drives away high-tech jobs;
integrity at risk
Arizona Daily Star 2/6/09
Tucson, Arizona - Our view: Legislature should honor
contract with Science Foundation Arizona. We hope
that Arizona legislators didn't understand what they
were doing when they sliced $22.5 million intended
for Science Foundation Arizona from the 2009 bud-
get. Lawmakers cut more than $1 billion last week-
end to make ends meet, and the hit to the
pioneering foundation has been largely overlooked
in the carnage. But the blow to Arizona's economic
future is potentially far more costly than a mere
$22.5 million. The state's refusal to fund the
foundation sends a message to technology, bio-
medical research and other 21st century firms that
Arizona isn't committed to scientific research,
education and development — which, as we'll
explain, are the foundation's missions.

Fans will continue to see big names
Arizona Daily Star 2/06/09
Tucson, Arizona - Big names in classical and
world music and performing arts that audiences
won't see anywhere else in Tucson will still be
the focus of UApresents' scaled-back 2009-
2010 season that's being hit by the University
of Arizona's broad budget-cutting. Although it is
losing three-fourths of its university funding —
leaving it with a budget that's nearly half of this
season's — UApresents will bring about 20
shows in 2009-10 compared to this season's
32.

UA's finest at President's Concert
Arizona Daily Star 2/6/09
Tucson, Arizona - Keitaro Harada's days are
filled with music. Hours and hours of it, day
in and day out from week to week. And that's
just fine with him because Harada is one of
two graduate students in the recently
established James E. Rogers Institute for
Orchestral and Opera Conducting at the
University of Arizona. ....Harada and Warren
will be featured conductors this weekend in
the 36th annual President's Concert by the
Arizona Symphony Orchestra. The concert
is always an anticipated event in Tucson
because it features the best of the UA School
of Music's students: the four winners of the
school's annual Music Concerto Competition.

Budget hearing in Tucson
UA Daily Wildcat 2/6/09
Public education was named as a top priority for
legislative democrats during a budget hearing
hosted by the House Democratic caucus in the
Amphitheater High School auditorium, and
judging by remarks made by some of the more
than 350 southern Arizona residents who turned
out, Tucsonans agree. "I would not have come
to Tucson if it was not for the University of Arizona,"
said Sally Gunderman, who identified herself as
a small business owner and supporter of the UA.

Kyl, McCain work to re-shape federal bailout
The Arizona Guardian 2/5/09 00:51
Even as Arizona's state legislators are counting
on the federal stimulus package to help patch
the leaky state budget, Arizona's U.S. Sens. Jon
Kyl and John McCain are working to trim, alter
or even halt the nearly $1 trillion measure. No
one can say with any certainty how much, or
even when, the money may arrive from
Washington, D.C. Kyl, the U.S. Senate minority
whip, told the Guardian that he opposes the
stimulus measure and that his preference is
to ditch it and start from scratch. At the least,
he said, by the time the U.S. Senate finishes
its work, the stimulus package is certain to be
significantly different than the version the U.S.
House approved last week. The final outcome
is critical at the state level, because Republican
and Democratic legislators differ on how
dependent the state should be on federal
dollars to fix a projected $3 billion deficit in
the 2010 budget.

Voters want more jobs, better education
The Arizona Guardian 2/6/09 8:36 
Arizona residents believe the most important
priorities for the governor and the Legislature
this year are to spur job growth and to improve
public education, according to the latest Rocky
Mountain Poll, which was released Thursday.
The survey results came less than a week
after Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican-led
Legislature approved a fix to the 2009 budget
that slashed funding to an array of state
agencies, including K-12 education and
universities, triggering an immediate cascade
of layoffs that already has reached into the
hundreds. Republican legislative leaders told
the Guardian they're specifically focused on
addressing topics identified in the survey. They
said they're trying to encourage private-sector
job growth by reducing taxes and regulations,
and that they're being as gentle as possible
with education cuts while managing multi-
million-dollar deficits in the state budget this
year and next. Democratic leaders said just
the opposite is taking place.

Longtime Brewer priorities reflected in budget
adjustments
Arizona Capitol Times 2/6/09
When the Legislature approved the long-awaited
fix for the overextended fiscal year 2009 budget,
Gov. Jan Brewer’s fingerprints were visible in a
few areas where her closest associates have
long known her to be a staunch advocate. Brewer
requested the restoration of some funding after
lawmakers had hammered out a budget deal
that eliminated a $1.6 billion shortfall. Her
revisions left intact $18.3 million for the mentally
ill, the homeless, patients with Alzheimer’s
disease and others whom she spent 20 years
supporting in the Legislature and on the Maricopa
County Board of Supervisors. Brewer’s record and
the funding she saved could be the surest sign yet
regarding the priorities she will set as lawmakers
craft a fiscal 2010 budget in the midst of a
recession-plagued economy and for the duration
of her term.

Shaking Up the Community College Concept
Inside Higher Education 2/6/09
The state budget is plummeting, enrollment at
community colleges is booming and graduation
rates are disappointingly stagnant. What better
time, officials of the City University of New York
seem to think, to create a new type of community
college to complement its six existing two-year
institutions. The vision is consistent with
national calls by many educators to look for new
ways to get more community college students
to complete programs speedily, but the plan has
stricter requirements and a narrower curriculum
than many community colleges — leaving some
observers concerned. Even a number of the
skeptics, however, are applauding CUNY for
trying something so different. The institution
would be a twist on the typical two-year model.
With a planned enrollment of 5,000 students, the
college would be the system’s second smallest
institution. All first-year students would be
required to take a predetermined core curriculum
and would then be limited to their choice of about
12 majors — each with a prominent focus on
internships and other on-the-job educational
opportunities. The proposed majors are mostly
in pre-career fields of study such as nursing,
surgical technology and energy services
management.

Downturn in Federal Research Spending
Inside Higher Education 2/6/09
In urging lawmakers to crank up spending on
scientific research in the economic stimulus
package Congress is now debating, university
lobbyists have focused their rhetoric on the
potential of the money to produce jobs and
“expand the knowledge base and produce the
discoveries that will sustain and improve the
nation’s economic competitiveness,” as the
Association of American Universities put it in
a letter to senators this week. Given the bill’s
purpose and the political necessities of the
times, that focus makes sense. But part of
the reason Congressional backers of the
additional research support are pushing it
— and the major reason potential recipients
of the funds want them so badly — is that
they believe federal backing for scientific
studies have been insufficient in recent
years. A National Science Foundation report
released Thursday confirms their thesis,
finding that federal spending on research
and development declined in real terms
from 2007 to 2008 and that 2008 funds for
basic research dropped to the lowest level
since 2002 in constant dollars.

Arizona State Furloughs Some Laid-Off Workers
The Chronicle of Higher Education 2/6/09
Some Arizona State University employees
who are being laid off will also be subjected
to a 15-day furlough, reports The Arizona
Republic. The university, which is eliminating
up to 550 positions through attrition and lay-
offs in response to a state budget crisis, has
ordered all of its 12,000 employees to take
up to 15 days of unpaid leave by June 30.
“Anyone still getting a paycheck between
February 2 and June 30 is affected. It’s
across the board because the cuts at the
Legislature are so deep,” Terri Shafer, an
Arizona State spokeswoman, told the
newspaper.

Logan's Journey: The University of Arizona
Ravaged by Tax Cuts
Huffington Post 2/6/09
Logan Byers, a 28-year old graduate student at
the University of Arizona returned to Tucson from
Guatemala where she had spent 6 weeks living
with a local family and studying Spanish. It had
been, over all, a positive experience, and she
was looking forward to getting back to work on
her dissertation. After graduating, she planned
to return to Guatemala to help the local
inhabitants develop an eco-friendly farming
system. Before she left there had been some
buzz among members of the School of Land-
scape Architecture about budgetary concerns,
though nothing too dire. But in the days ahead,
matters would spread out of control, making
the sick spell she suffered after eating a tamale
made with some questionable chicken seem
like a welcome memory. Cuts estimated in the
millions quickly escalated to the tens of millions.
Departments would be forced to merge,
suffocating a diminished support staff, and
graduate students like Logan found themselves
facing an uncertain future

Antarctic Expedition Prepared Researchers
For Mars Project
Science Daily 2/5/09
About half a year before the robotic arm on
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging
into soil and subsurface ice of an arctic plain
of Mars, six scientists traveled to one of the
coldest, driest places on Earth for soil-and-
ice studies that would end up aiding analysis
of the Mars data. They used duplicates of
some of the Phoenix spacecraft's instruments,
plus other methods, in the Antarctic Dry Valleys
where breaks in the south polar ice sheet leave
windswept rocky terrain exposed. Their two-
week expedition, overlapping New Year's Day
2008, was part of the International Polar Year,
a multipronged scientific program focused on
the Arctic and Antarctic from March 2007 to
March 2009. ..."Those upper valleys are the
best analog for the Phoenix site," said Peter
Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson,
principal investigator for the Phoenix mission.
"The soil temperatures are always well below
freezing, ice is stable about 15 inches below
the surface, and the extreme conditions
challenge life forms to the maximum. This is
as close as we can get to Martian conditions."

Arizona R&D hurt by education cuts
R & D Magazine 2/5/09
The University of Arizona will eliminate about
600 jobs as part of about $57 million in bud-
get cuts through June. In all, $141.5 million
is being cut from the state's university system.
UA President Robert Shelton said Monday the
university also will have to eliminate many out-
reach and community-based activities, including
suspending 75% of funding for UApresents,
which brings performers to campus. And all
faculty and staff paid with state and local funds
will have to take five days off without pay during
fiscal 2010, starting July 1, because of more
cuts coming. In addition, some Arizona State
Univ. employees who are being laid off will face
a double whammy under the university's new
furlough policy.