TO CLIPS INDEX  Clips for January 9, 2009

Napolitano rejects criticism on budget
The Associated Press/Tucson Citizen
1/9/2009
PHOENIX — Departing Gov. Janet Napolitano
isn't taking responsibility for the state's budget
crisis but says she is stepping up in her final
days in office to suggest ways to solve it.
Napolitano is expected to resign later this
month to become U.S. homeland security
secretary. Before then, Napolitano gives her
final State of the State address on Monday
and later releases budget proposals.
Napolitano said during an interview with
The Associated Press on Friday that law-
makers don't have to listen to her but that
she's fulfilling her responsibility by providing
plans to close the current big shortfall and to
balance the next budget.

Council weighs ruling that affects 'mini-dorms'
near UA
Tucson Citizen 1/9/09
The Tucson City Council will hold a public hearing
Tuesday on a city rule that could tip the balance in
the battle over "mini-dorms" near the University of
Arizona. The current rule requires property owners
to submit historical information to the city before
demolishing older buildings around downtown.
That step can delay demolition, even prevent it, if
the city finds the building has historical
significance, City Attorney Mike Rankin said. The
rule has been perceived as an obstacle by
developers but a blessing by historic neighbor-
hoods. And in the eyes and court decision of Pima
County Superior Court Judge John F. Kelly, it's
illegal.

ASU, U of A unlikely to follow NAU lead on
flat-rate tuitions
Arizona Capitol Times 1/9/09
For most college students, tuition hikes are a fact
of life as inevitable and dreaded as final exams.
At Northern Arizona University, the administration
is trying to eliminate the uncertainty of those
annual increases with a flat-rate tuition that gives
all incoming students a fixed rate for four years.
Arizona’s other universities are trying to take the
uncertainty out of tuition as well. But neither
Arizona State University nor the University of
Arizona appears likely to follow Flagstaff’s lead
when it comes to the flat rate.

Governor says Arizona could get $1 billion from feds
The Arizona Republic 1/9/09
Arizona could receive "upwards and over" $1 billion from
the federal government as part of an economic stimulus
package being shaped by President-elect Barack Obama
and members of Congress, Gov. Janet Napolitano told
The Arizona Republic on Thursday. Napolitano cautioned
that the figure remains a "moving target" because talks
regarding the plan are continuing. But the money would
be a significant help to a state government facing an
immediate shortfall as large as $1.6 billion. For fiscal
2010, which will begin July 1, the projected shortfall
ranges from an additional $2 billion to $3 billion. The
stimulus funding would probably be split between this
year and next.

Officials seeking to retain tax cut
The Arizona Republic 1/9/09
Arizona's two incoming most influential lawmakers said
Thursday they would push to make permanent a statewide
property-tax reduction, a move that pleased business groups
calling for the $250 million cut. Speaker-elect Kirk Adams,
R-Mesa, at a chamber luncheon "guaranteed" the House
would make the cut permanent during the 2009 legislative
session, while Senate President-elect Bob Burns, R-Peoria,
said businesses and homeowners shouldn't be hit with a
quarter-billion-dollar tax hike despite the state's budget
problems. At issue is the so-called school equalization tax,
which was suspended three years ago when the economy
was flush. If lawmakers take no action this session, which
begins Monday, the tax goes into effect this fall and the
money flows into the state's coffers in 2010.

Health professions enrollment on rise
Arizona Daily Sun 1/9/09
Jessica Horseherder was stressed. She had just
moved back to Cameron on the Navajo Nation
and was working two jobs to pay her bills. Her
life was sleep, work, sleep, work. That was over
the summer. Now, she's moving forward toward
a better-paying job that is expected to be stable
even during today's tumultuous economic times:
nursing. Horseherder worked in retail, as a sales
associate and manager at stores like Dillard's
and Family Dollar. The pay wasn't great and she
wanted a job with regular shifts, good benefits
and high marketability. She also wanted to help
people. "If I'm going to struggle, I might as well
struggle for a reason, so I might as well go back
to school," Horseherder said Thursday as she
registered for classes at Coconino Community
College in south Flagstaff. Horseherder is not
unusual for a Coconino student, who begin the
spring term on Monday. Hundreds more are
enrolling this winter at the two-year college, with
a notable uptick in vocational courses such as
nursing or law enforcement. "We're usually busy
at this time of year, but the traffic has been
especially intense," said David Minger, vice
president of student affairs for the college. ...He
said college administrators and educators have
long known that enrollment goes up when the
economy goes south. People especially see the
value of an education as the economy sours.

Fraternity hazing no longer acceptable
Arizona Daily Sun 1/9/09
Branding students with dry ice and forcing them
to vomit violate a campus code of conduct that
shouldn't tolerate such personal degradation.
Boys will be boys. Just not on the campus of
Northern Arizona University. As the university's
crackdown on Pi Kappa Alpha shows, the days
when pledges could be put at risk of injury and
humiliated during initiation rites are gone.
Branding pledges' buttocks with dry ice, pelting
them with rotten fruit and forcing them to vomit
might make for a good comedy movie, but this
is real life. The practices listed above, known
as hazing, are supposedly tests of character
and physical stamina that help the fraternity
determine a pledge's suitability for member-
ship. Like many rituals, hazing apparently has
morphed from the relatively tame rites of a
hundred years ago to ones that verge on the
cruel and sadistic, not to mention physically
risky.

Up Close with Michael Crow
Arizona Capitol Times 1/9/09
Michael Crow left New York and his executive vice
provost position with Columbia University in 2002
to become the 16th president of Arizona State
University, bringing with him a strong research
background in science and technology innovation.
As president, Crow has sought to strengthen ASU’s
reputation as a research institute, a goal not without
criticism from state lawmakers. And looking forward
to the 2009 legislative session, Crow knows there
will be many more issues upon which he and some
key legislators will not agree. Cuts to the university’s
fiscal 2009 budget and the anticipation of greater
cuts in the future by legislators hoping to resolve
the state’s projected $3 billion deficit has led Crow
to criticize the Legislature’s approach to managing
the state’s economy. Crow hopes to convince the
incoming Republican-controlled Legislature and
Governor’s Office of the importance of investing in
what he calls the state’s knowledge infrastructure.

Sen. Bob Burns calls budget deficit a ‘tar baby’
Phoenix Business Journal 1/8/09 3:28pm
Arizona State Senate President Bob Burns is facing
criticism for referring to the state’s budget situation
as a “tar baby.” Burns, R-Peoria, used the term
Thursday to describe the state’s large deficits
during a speech before the Arizona Chamber of
Commerce & Industry. The state faces a shortfall
of as much as $4.5 billion for the current and next
fiscal years. Over the years, the term “tar baby”
has had racial connotations with some concerns
that is a derogatory name for blacks. “It’s an
embarrassment to Arizona that the president of
our Senate would use such an ugly term, one
that is so universally recognized as derogatory
and hurtful,” said Emily DeRose, communications
director for the Arizona Democratic Party.

State budget deficit approaches $4.5 billion
Phoenix Business Journal 1/8/09 2:12pm MST
Arizona’s budget deficit for the current and next fiscal
year’s soon could hit $4.5 billion. State House Speaker
Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, said Thursday the current fiscal
year’s shortfall now stands at $1.2 billion, a number
that will be revised upward in the coming days. Adams
said next fiscal year’s budget deficit could be as much
as $3 billion and the state needs to educate businesses
and voters about the financial peril of the that shortfall.
The troubled economy and housing market have bitten
into tax revenue and the situation is not improving,
state lawmakers said at a luncheon hosted Thursday
by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The States Pull Back
Inside Higher Ed 1/9/09
Ask anyone who works at a public college or
university about the impact of state support
(or lack thereof), and they have stories to tell:
of raises lost, of furloughs, of programs being
eliminated and of positions frozen. Here’s a
new measure of how bad it is: The researchers
who produce the definitive annual study of
state appropriations for higher education are
being forced today to release data they know
understate (in some cases significantly) the
extent of the cuts. As of right now, state support
for higher education is up 0.9 percent for fiscal
2009, according to the annual study (known as
Grapevine) produced by researchers at Illinois
State University’s Center for the Study of
Education Policy. Grapevine is known for
making state spending figures — which in
many ways are inconsistent — comparable.
The study excludes tuition revenue or debt
used to finance facilities and focuses on state
tax support. ....Further complicating matters,
many states or higher education systems are
telling public colleges and universities to hold
back on spending some of the money they
have received from the state, pending a
budget plan. ...