Arizona Board of Regents

This section is intended to provide information about the AUS Redesign Project activities of the Arizona Board of Regents and Arizona's public universities

Meeting the heavy demand for a quality university education will be one of the most formidable challenges faced by Arizona’s university system in the years ahead. Population growth rates and student enrollments are expected to skyrocket during the next two decades, and the university system must be able to accommodate the tens of thousands of students that will be knocking on the universities’ doors.

The university system already is stressed by a record number of student enrollments, and the capacity of the universities to meet current demand is severely strained. The situation will worsen in the future unless the system is positioned to handle further growth.

To this end, at a June 3, 2004 special study session, a proposal to redesign the university system to accommodate the expected growth was presented to the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR). At this meeting, the Board authorized a feasibility and planning study to examine this proposal and any other alternative meritorious proposals submitted to the Board.

An 18-member work group – the ABOR Feasibility and Planning Study Work Group – has been established to conduct the feasibility and planning study of the proposed redesign of Arizona’s university system.

Mary Jo Waits has been appointed as the staff director of the study, directing the activities of the work group, and will work closely with David Longanecker, Executive Director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), who will serve as the project consultant. Mary Jo formerly was with the Morrison Institute, having served as the Associate Director overseeing the Institute’s project development, publications, research and analysis. She was the principal author of The New Economy: A Guide for Arizona and The New Economy: Policy Choices for Arizona. She also was the principle author of Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona’s Future.

Stakeholder involvement is critical to the feasibility and planning study. Accordingly, eight stakeholder groups will be established to participate in the study representing the following constituencies (listed alphabetically):

Alumni/Community

Business/Economic Development Community

Community Colleges

Diversity groups

Elected Officials

Faculty

Staff

Students

The stakeholder groups will suggest issues to be addressed by the study, including the ways in which these might be addressed, and to provide feedback on proposed recommendations to the Board of Regents.

Each stakeholder group will be provided multiple opportunities to meet with the ABOR Feasibility and Planning Study Work Group to identify and discuss issues to be addressed during the study and to provide feedback on the proposed recommendations to the Board.

The feasibility and planning study will be very open and inclusive. All meetings of the stakeholder groups, the ABOR Feasibility and Planning Study Work Group, and the review team that will be reviewing the recommendations of the work group will be open to the public.

The first meeting of the ABOR Feasibility and Planning Study Work Group will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on July 20, 2004, at the Downtown Campus of Arizona State University, 502 E. Monroe Street, Room C145.

Information relating to the feasibility and planning study can be found on this website via the links below and will be updated during the course of the study.

The Board materials (executive summary) presented at the June 3, 2004 session

The Board materials (executive summary) presented at the June 24 meeting

The proposed scope of work for this study can be described in terms of the:

Guiding principles for the study

Needs assessment for the redesign

Strategic questions to be answered by the study

Elements to be included in an Implementation plan

At the August 2004 meeting, the following additional items for the study will be presented to the Board:

Action Plan

Timeline

The deadline for submitting alternative proposals to the redesign of the university system is August 1, 2004. These may be sent to:

                Mary Jo Waits, Staff Director
                AUS Redesign Project
                2020 N. Central Avenue, Suite 230
                Phoenix, AZ 85004-4593
                Phone: (602) 229-2515
                Fax: (602) 229-2555
                Email: MJWaits@asu.edu

Contact us
Arizona Board of Regents
2020 N. Central Ave., Suite 230
Phoenix, AZ 85004-4593
Telephone: (602) 229-2500 / Fax: (602) 229-2555