Senator William Bickel – Senator Bickel questioned the President, the Faculty Chair, and the Regents regarding questions of due process, academic freedom, conflict of interest, and access to public information relating to the Marguerite Kay case.

3. REPORTS
3A. ASUA President Ray Quintero
ASUA has been working with the Arizona Students Association (ASA), the administration, the university lobbyist, and the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) to garner support for its "No More Than 4" campaign to pressure the legislature to hold the Universities’ budget rescissions to 4%. At the State capital on November 13, 2001, ASA will sponsor a rally for higher education and provide transportation for about 100 students from each campus. The Academic Advising Task Force’s final report will include the student input gathered from the student surveys and focus groups and is due at the end of December 2001. Senator Judice is working to determine whether a "majors exploration" class for undergraduates, similar to a class now offered in the College of Business and Public Administration (BPA), would be feasible to be offered campus-wide. ASUA’s "Safe-Ride" escort program has recently expanded its boundaries and the usage numbers have increased dramatically which is a budgeting and staffing challenge.

Senator Witte inquired how the AIC decision will relate to the Northwest UA campus, philosophically, financially, and in terms of the rescission. President Likins replied that the challenge of accommodating growth at UA remains; current enrollment is now at 35K. UA South, ASU West and ASU East provide a variety of strategies for accommodating growth without impacting on the main campus. A nominal expectation for UA North is to provide junior, senior and graduate classes that are fed by and in collaboration with Pima Community College (PCC). The PCC/UA North physical facility is being built with state funds. R. Richardson and R. Groth are co-chairing a task force to consider which programs will be offered at the UA North Campus in consultation with PCC to ensure a reasonable progression of enrollment and within the constraints that the program cannot require any subsidy from main campuses. Some professional and extension courses may also be offered at this campus.

Senator Silverman expressed concerns on the part of the faculty about why the shared governance agreement was not a part of the process by which AIC’s ultimate outcome was decided. Although President Likins’ explanation of the origin of AIC led to an executive decision, Silverman believes that a precedent might be made for other decisions with similar origins. President Likins said he assumed a personal degree of responsibility for AIC when he arrived in 1997 and he hoped it would become an independent entity. When he made the decision to recommend closing AIC, he also decided not to bring the issue before the Senate, because he expected a painful and acrimonious debate and he felt confident that the will of the Senate had been voiced in previous debates.

Senator O’Brien reminded the Senate of its lengthy debate over tenure versus non-tenure status. She believes that the President’s decision to disband AIC may not have been made so easily if the faculty had been awarded tenure, illustrating the importance of tenure and continuing status. President Likins replied that those faculty members have term appointments, some of which do not expire until 2006.

Senator Garcia asked if the Faculty Chair would look into the issue of the Post Tenure Review guidelines in the College of Humanities. Chair Hancock agreed to do so.

Senator Medine asked about the disposition of the 5% salary increases. Provost Davis explained that this element of the budget is exempt from consideration until the legislature’s special session determines the goals for the state. The UA administration will advocate the importance of staff and faculty salaries but President Likins clarified that the salary package is not a university employees’ salary package; it is a state employees’ salary package that will be decided by the governor and the legislature.

5. REPORT FROM REGENT KAY MCKAY, PRESIDENT, ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS.
Regent McKay offered an overview of the current situation from a Regents perspective. She recognized that Provost Davis and President Likins and the entire faculty of the University of Arizona are highly regarded in the State of Arizona. As a result of her visit to UA today, she intends to recommend to the Board that they dedicate some time to visit campuses and to appreciate what is really important about the university and about its students and faculty. She explained that a sitting governor appoints Regents for an eight-year term with two Regents rotating off every two years. There are nine regents including one student regent with voting rights, and now, this year, a non-voting student regent has been added, plus two ex-officio members, the Governor and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Arizona is somewhat unique with one Board of Regents covering all three universities. She believes the 4% cuts are devastating and she does not want to be passive. She has spoken with each Regent and the three presidents about what can be done and they have decided that they need to let the public, the governor and the legislature know that these cuts are not easy or healthy for the universities. In studying budgets from previous years, she has seen that the universities are doing more and more with less and less. She acknowledged how hard it is to explain to the general public what a university’s presence means to a community and to our society. The Regents came up with a plan to support the presidents and the universities publicly, so last week they met with the Arizona Republic, the Tribune, the Citizen, the Star, and the Yuma paper, and discussed what the Regents are doing to support the faculty. She applauds the ASA’s "No More Than 4" campaign and said this unified approach will be most effective. She intends to tell Governor Hull that anything more than 4% will be truly paralyzing to the universities and that the legislature should consider other measures such as school bonding or increasing the tax base. Senator’s questions and concerns and Regent McKay’s responses included the following: 1) Why does it seem as if the universities have no support from the state government at all and how can we change it? Regent McKay believes term limits have contributed to some of the legislature’s naivete about the universities but this is changing. Furthermore, some legislators had disdain for higher education and planning for the future of education in Arizona during the prosperous years. A recent publication from ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, "Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona’s Future," explains some of the things that have led to this state of affairs. Lack of public support is also the reason why all three presidents came to the editorial boards of the public newpapers to renew the process of educating the public and the legislators about the university system. A unified approach with a common vision among faculty, students, administrators, and Regents is also helpful in this situation. 2) What is the current status of ABOR’s study of intercollegiate athletics? This is one of the most complicated issue Regent McKay has ever seen. Changing the salary structures of coaches versus faculty will involve a thoughtful and time-consuming process and the Regents realize this will not be a quick fix and are thoroughly considering the issues with cautioun and prudence. Many people do not realize that athletics don’t drain a university system—they actually add to it, and financially it is almost a wash. Regent McKay believes some changes will be made, but she does not favor eliminating the NCAA and she added that UA has an excellent athletics program and that its director, Jim  Livengood, is a man of integrity and honor. 3) Are the Regents aware of a central problem regarding faculty salaries that was not precipitated by the events of September 11^th or the current budget rescission? Two-thirds of the faculty are underpaid at a rate that is at variance with documented records of achievement compared to peer institutions. Many of the most productive of the senior faculty are $10-20K below par and will never reach a comparable salary because they are falling ever further behind. In the 1990’s, the University had a 5.95% all funds average annual budget increase, but faculty salaries only increased at the rate of 2.76%. During the same time period, the president’s salary increased by 4.52% and the deans’ salaries increased by 4.48%. A great percentage of the faculty that was hired in the late 60’s or 70’s are seriously affected by this long-standing historical trend and the consequence is very bad morale. There seems to be no significant short-range planning to resolve this problem. UA’s all funds budget is almost $1B. It would take about $10M (.1% of $1B) to repair this shortfall and that could be spread over three-four years. Regent McKay totally concurred that this is a major, systemic problem in our state and she doesn’t know the answer but believes more creative funding and perhaps an increase in the tax base would help. 4) A university is students, faculty and a library, not buildings. Whenever budget reductions are imposed, there are no salary increases, tuition costs increase, and library costs increase, yet enormous building projects continue. Although those building funds are from separate sources, isn’t there some way to rearrange those sources to finance the students, faculty, and libraries? Regent McKay is very concerned about faculty salaries at all three universities; she said the universities are often penalized for good management. The public also believes the Proposition 301 money can be used for salaries, which is, of course, prohibited by law. One of the Regents’ jobs is to educate the public about the universities’ budget and salary structures. President Likins said that only the Learning Services Building on 1^st and Vine is currently having its debt service retired from the University’s unrestricted funds. Most of the money in these targeted funds is simply not fungible. Provost Davis added that the libraries’ acquisitions, graduate fellowships, financial aid set-aside, and special fee waivers are exempt from the budget cuts. 5) The legislature has seen that the College of Medicine, for example has in recent years been able to make up for the cuts by bringing in indirect funds, but now there is nothing left to cut. Regent McKay understands and promises not to be passive about the universities’ funding. 6) Some legislators may still resent faculty because they believe that faculty are overpaid and underworked. How can we bring legislators to campus or make them understand how hard faculty are working? Regent McKay said it is never a mistake to invite people to the campus. She is not sure that those persons in positions of power truly understand cognitive development and its impact on society. 7) Targeted money that is often given to the universities with maximum publicity for the donor does not assist the educational process and the public often believes that such monies are available to be spent at the university’s discretion, when in fact, they are specifically targeted for certain departments or landscaping. Perhaps the University should stop accepting such donations. 8) The legislature and citizens of Arizona should be supporting higher education. What are the Regents doing to develop business community relationships and could the Student Showcase be helpful in overcoming this disconnect between the University and the public? Regent McKay replied that the regents and the universities are interfacing a great deal with the business community right now. She also noted that many tax base adjustments were done in the early 90’s that benefited business which now need to be adjusted because these have greatly impacted education. 9) There is a limit to how much sympathy faculty can get for how hard they work, so it may be helpful to emphasize how hard students work.

8. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5: p.m.

Robert L. Mitchell, Secretary

Appendix*

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