TO CLIPS INDEX  Clips for March 17, 2009

Sculpture stirs resentment
The Arizona Republic 3/17/09
A public art project that was supposed to
depict the image of a snoozing Mexican
with his head beneath a sombrero has
stirred resentment from some Hispanics
even though the sculpture collapsed just
minutes after being removed from a mold.
"When I saw the picture and read about it,
I just thought, 'How sad. What a lost
opportunity, and what a waste of money,' "
said Zarco Guererro, a prominent Latino
artist in Arizona. "For all of my life, that
image has represented a lazy Mexican."
The artists who created a 12-foot statue
for a public art program at Arizona State
University say their project depicts the
complex relationship between borders
and culture. Others say the installation
in a border region notorious for illegal
immigration promotes a negative
stereotype of laziness.

Next wave of stimulus up for grabs
The Arizona Republic 3/17/09
Last week, Arizona transportation officials
settled on 41 road projects to be built using
federal stimulus money. They had a list of
114 eligible. The list underscores a
fundamental issue in President Barack
Obama's $787 billion plan to boost the
economy: Even with the huge sums of
money available, many eligible projects
will go lacking. Program planning - Arizona
educators are lining up their proposals for
billions of dollars in competitive stimulus
grants, which could help ease the pain of
recent budget cuts or establish new areas
of research expertise. Nationwide, the grant
winners will be states with big ideas where
educators can quickly compromise and
work together on multistate and multi-district
proposals. Awards will be weighted in favor
of partnerships that link elementary schools
with colleges and universities that are ready
to help with research and teacher training.

GOP wants transparency, but evicts reporters
Capitol Media Services/The Arizona Republic
3/16/09 4:26PM
Senate President Bob Burns said Monday he is
not interested in finding new space for reporters
after Republicans take over the current press
room in the Senate on that date. Burns wants
that room for Republicans to have their caucuses,
meetings of party members to discuss policy and
pending legislation. And Burns said he is not
interested in providing space for reporters in any
of the other rooms that will be opened up once the
caucus room moves from its current second floor
location. He also said he is not interested in trying
to provide space for reporters who cover the House
and Senate in the adjacent Old Capitol building.“
We have needs for the space,” he said. Burns’
statement came at the end of a news conference
where he and other Senate Republicans used “
Sunshine Week” to detail what they say they are
doing to make government more transparent to the
public. That unofficial week, pushed by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors, is designed to educate
the public about the importance of open government
and freedom of information.

UA kicks fraternity off campus for boozing, hazing
Associated Press/East Valley Tribune
3/17/09 10:36 AM EDT
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Boozing and hazing violations have
cost a University of Arizona fraternity its existence on
campus. The school says it has kicked the Kappa
Sigma fraternity off campus for five years. Campus
officials began investigating Kappa Sigma after
several violations of campus policies were reported
in the fall semester, many involving alcohol. The
fraternity already was on probation. Attempts to reach
local and national Kappa Sigma officials on Monday
were unsuccessful. A second fraternity is also close
to going away. UA Dean of Students Carol Thompson
says Sigma Phi Epsilon has withdrawn an appeal to
remain on campus after it lost recognition and was
suspended as a result of alleged hazing violations.

Rural broadband access on tap
Arizona Daily Sun 3/17/09
For parts of northern Arizona, the information super-
highway is more like a two-lane dirt road riddled with
potholes. Some areas, mostly notably vast portions
of the Rez, have no high-speed broadband access to
the Internet, and the only link to e-mail and the rest of
the Web is through a dial-up modem. How to bring
high-speed access to small rural communities will
be discussed on Wednesday night here in Flagstaff
as part of a series of national public meetings
arranged by the Obama administration. ....Federal
officials are ready to do more than talk about the virtues
of easily accessible broadband -- they have a $4.7
billion check from Congress to spend. ....Another $200
million will be made available to upgrade technology in
public computing centers, like community colleges and
libraries. Both Coconino Community College and
Northern Arizona University are expected to review the
funding guidelines and make a determination in the
near future on whether to apply for the federal funds.

Editorial: Rio Nuevo getting a boost from GOP
Arizona Daily Star 3/17/09
Tucson, Arizona - We wouldn't have predicted it,
but it appears that Tucson lawmakers are on
track to save Rio Nuevo funding. This is the right
step for Tucson because the redevelopment
project, if managed properly, is the best chance
for a new, vibrant Downtown — and a vibrant
Downtown is absolutely necessary to our
community's economic well-being. Sen. Al Melvin,
R-Tucson, told the Star's editorial board on Friday
that he is "confident" that Southern Arizona law-
makers of both parties can work together to
"make it happen."

Editorial: Lawmakers aren't at the same table
Arizona Daily Star 3/17/09
Tucson, Arizona - The state Legislature must
build a budget for fiscal 2010 that reconciles
an anticipated shortfall of at least $3 billion.
It's time to set aside preconceived notions
about what is acceptable and find a budget
fix that does the least harm to Arizonans.
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Senate President
Bob Burns, R-Peoria, and House Speaker Kirk
Adams, R-Mesa, visited the Star on Friday and
each, in separate interviews, said that all options
are "on the table." Those options include selling
assets, borrowing, fund sweeps, program cuts
and federal stimulus funds. They even said that
tax increases should be considered, but as a
last resort. But not all ideas are being heard,
according to a trio of Tucson-area Democratic
senators who spoke with the Star on Monday.
Minority Leader Jorge Luis Garcia, Minority Whip
Linda Lopez and Paula Aboud presented their
party's plan and strategies for the fiscal 2010
budget.

UA's main attorney leaving to be Smithsonian
legal chief
Arizona Daily Star 3/17/09
Tucson, Arizona - The University of Arizona's chief
legal counsel has been named to a similar post
at the Smithsonian Institution based in Washington
D.C., the national museum announced on Monday.
Judith Leonard, who has been the UA's vice
president for legal affairs since 1998, will become
general counsel for the Smithsonian in June,
according to a news release. In her new position,
Leonard will advise the Smithsonian's leadership,
governing body and other officials on legal matters,
the release said. She also will manage a legal
office of 17 lawyers and support staff, along with
supervising outside legal counsel.

Hazing: One fraternity is booted, another halts
appeal
Arizona Daily Star 3/17/09
Tucson, Arizona - One of the UA's largest fraternities
has been kicked off campus after several purported
hazing and alcohol violations, while a second
fraternity in limbo has withdrawn an appeal to stay
at the university. The University of Arizona's chapter
of Kappa Sigma was notified last week that the
university was withdrawing the fraternity's recognition
and suspending it for five years, said Carol Thompson,
the UA's dean of students. Meanwhile, the UA chapter
of Sigma Phi Epsilon has stopped an appeal to remain
on campus after it lost recognition and was suspended
as the result of reported hazing violations in the fall,
Thompson said.

Top UA attorney named to Smithsonian post
Tucson Citizen 3/17/09
The Smithsonian Institution has named the
University of Arizona vice president of legal
affairs to serve as the institution's new chief
lawyer. Judith E. Leonard will take over as
general counsel for the world's largest museum
and research complex on June 1, a job she said
"was too good to pass up." Leonard, who has
been at UA since 1998, visited the Smithsonian
many times growing up and has a picture of her-
self in front of one of the many life-sized skeletons
housed in the institution.

Despite advisories, Rocky Point still break
destination for students
ASU Web Devil 3/17/09
Amid reports and warnings of growing danger across
Mexico, many ASU students canceled their spring-
break vacations south of the border, and popular
beach destination Rocky Point has already seen
the tourism dollars decline. Despite these reports,
hundreds of students still visited the city last week
and few, if any, experienced problems related to drug-
cartel violence. Tom Sorrell, a kinesiology sophomore,
spent several days in Rocky Point, or Puerto Peñasco,
in a rented house near the beach. “I didn’t encounter
anything dangerous, other than drunk people from
Arizona,” he said.

Arizona graduation rate fourth worst among
all NCAA Tournament teams
UA Daily Wildcat 3/13/09
Arizona was near the bottom of the list of schools
that made it into the 2009 NCAA men's basketball
Tournament. A report released Monday by The
Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the
University of Central Florida revealed that the UA
is also near the bottom of graduation rates based
on whether freshmen who entered school between
the 1998-99 and 2001-02 school years earned
diplomas within six years. The five lowest rates
were Cal State-Northridge (8 percent), Maryland
(10 percent), Portland State (17 percent), Arizona
(20 percent) and Clemson (29 percent). Overall
rates were based on 63 teams. Neither Cornell
nor North Dakota State reported graduation rates.

ASU Held Up by New York Times as Example
of University That Reached Too High
Phoenix New Times 3/16/09 5:35PM
This isn't the New York Times story about Arizona
State University that Michael Crow (pictured) hoped
his former colleagues at Columbia University would
ever have to read. Crow, the president of ASU, has
received plenty of criticism over the years for his
grandiose plans to expand the university while
simultaneously polishing its research capabilities.
Today's budget realities are now denying ASU the
full glory he hoped to bestow upon it, and the Times
is there to cover his woes.

UA, ASU Team on Program for Little Brainiacs
East Valley Living 3/16/09
PHOENIX — “Who wants to touch a sheep’s brain?”
asked Heather Bimonte-Nelson, PhD, assistant
professor at Arizona State University. Most of the 34
second-grade hands shot into the air to begin a new
program developed by faculty members from The
University of Arizona and Arizona State University.
For one hour, boys and girls from the Children First
Academy (formally Thomas J. Pappas School)
recently participated in “Little Brainiacs” at the
Children’s Museum of Phoenix. Dressed in miniature
white lab coats, the students peered into microscopes,
sliced real sheep brains and wrapped each other in
plastic wrap to understand the concept of myelin (a
soft, white, fatty material in the membrane of certain
brain cells). “I want students to know there is a way
out, to know there are options out there for them to
grow and be whatever they dream and that knowledge
is power,” said Dr. Bimonte-Nelson, an assistant
professor of psychology in ASU’s College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences.

A Research University Copes With Budget Cuts
and Skeptical Lawmakers
The Chronicle of Higher Education 3/17/09
Tucson, Ariz. - To be at the University of Arizona these
days is to be, in some ways, under siege. The flagship
university in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states
may have to eliminate some 600 jobs and merge
dozens of programs to deal with two rounds of budget
cuts imposed since June, and now the governor is
telling the university and other state agencies to prepare
for cuts of as much as 20 percent for the next fiscal year.
The university had already begun last summer to look for
ways to significantly overhaul its operations, but those
changes alone won’t be enough to offset the reductions
in state aid. University leaders feel their core mission is
at stake, as they struggle to make a case for the public
value of a research university to a governor and key
legislators who have found success in life without having
earned a four-year degree. The reductions threaten to be-
come so severe that some higher-education officials say
they may even violate a requirement in the State
Constitution that public higher education be “as nearly
free as possible.” To offset the loss in state aid, the
university may decide it needs to raise tuition, which has
already increased by nearly 10 percent per year over the
past decade.