TO CLIPS INDEX Clips for February 7, 8, & 9, 2009

Crow to push for energy research
The Arizona Republic 2/9/09
Arizona State University President Michael Crow
will help introduce a plan today to create a network
of research centers aimed at replacing fossil fuels
such as gasoline and coal with sustainable-energy
sources such as wind and solar. The plan, spear-
headed by a Washington-based think tank, calls
for the creation of a dozen or more research centers
scattered about the country. Funded by public and
private money, the centers would support research
at universities and national laboratories and trans-
late the results into practical uses for private industry.

Editorial: Gov. Brewer must make sure state gets
a fair share
The Arizona Republic 2/8/09
The federal stimulus package is racing down the
tracks, close to a final version. It's faulty, far from
the best way to revive the economy. But it's coming.
And Arizona needs to get ready. Fast. We must
strategize to take full advantage of the available
funding. That requires leadership, focus and a
united sense of purpose. One person should be
at the forefront: Gov. Jan Brewer. The timing couldn't
be tougher. She has been in office less than three
weeks. She faces the worst state budget crisis in
more than half a century. She just signed midyear
budget cuts that agencies are struggling to handle.
And now, that trainload of federal dollars is on the
way. Brewer must lead the way in making sure that
Arizona is prepared to put the funding to work quickly
and efficiently.

Viewpoints: 7 question for FACT leader Ted Ferris
The Arizona Republic 2/8/09
Ted Ferris knows his way around budgets and state
government. That experience will be relied on as he
heads a new task force called FACT, or the Fiscal
Alternatives Choices Team, a group of university
economists and business-school faculty and
administrators. The group, created by the Arizona
Board of Regents, will identify options for solving the
state's fiscal crisis. Legislators are looking at a $3.6
billion shortfall for fiscal 2010. Ferris served as
executive director of the Joint Legislative Budget
Committee for 12 years. He was deputy chief of staff
for Gov. Jane Dee Hull from 1997 to 2000. And he
was president/CEO of the Arizona Sports and Tourism
Authority from 2001 to 2008. Ferris, of Cave Creek, is
principal member of Quadpro Consulting, which
provides consulting services in the areas of public
finance and government relations, as well as sports
facility development, financing and operations.

Freshman lawmakers take stand on budget
The Arizona Republic 2/8/09
A group of Republican freshmen, in their third
week on the job, stared down the governor and
the speaker of the Arizona House of
Representatives over the state budget. They
didn't blink, and their unbending stance not only
spelled the end of a state program, it exposed
fault lines among Republicans just weeks into
a legislative session where the GOP has
strengthened its numbers. "I got a crash course
in politics," said Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra
Vista. "As I understand it, it's not very common
that freshmen get summoned to the Governor's
Office." But that's exactly what happened nine
days ago when Stevens and fellow Republicans
Frank Antenori of Tucson, Steve Montenegro of
Litchfield Park and Carl Seel of Anthem were
escorted to Gov. Jan Brewer's office as
negotiations to close a $1.6 billion gap in the
state budget hit a snag over their opposition to
the 21st Century Fund.

NAU mentors Liberty district hires
The Arizona Republic 2/7/09 7:00 AM
Northern Arizona University is helping the Liberty
Elementary School District develop and retain
new hires. NAU's mentoring program has
partnered with several school districts across the
state, which is struggling to hang on to new K-12
teachers. Liberty's partnership with NAU is through
its Arizona K-12 Center's Master Teacher Mentor
Program, which targets districts with high teacher
turnover and lots of new teachers. Liberty, which
has schools in Buckeye and Goodyear,
experienced a 15 percent student growth rate
and about 34 percent new teacher turnover.
Those numbers led the center to provide
$123,000 for three full-time teacher mentors.

Gov. Jan Brewer blames Napolitano for budget
crisis
The Arizona Republic 2/7/09
Calling herself "very angry" and "furious" about the
fiscal condition she inherited last month, Gov. Jan
Brewer lashed out Friday at the former
gubernatorial administration and warned that bleak
times await Arizona. "We have very deep valleys
ahead of us," said Brewer, a Republican. "We are
facing very, very critical times. I'm very angry,
basically, that Arizona is in this shape that it's in."
The statements came as Brewer met with the
Capitol press corps for a wide-ranging, 23-minute
news conference - her first since taking office Jan.
20.

SkySong gets its wings, prepares for expansion
The Arizona Republic 2/7/09
Its final cable tightened and last wrinkles pulled taut,
the shade structure dubbed SkySong is heading to
completion this week. Crews have been working
since early December on the 50,000-square-foot
structure, erecting its frame and adding the Teflon-
coated fabric shade. All that is left after this week
are a few small punch-list items, said Claude
Centner, executive vice president of FabriTec
Structures, the California-based installer. He sees
the structure as pulling the development together
and drawing people to the outdoor arena. "I'm
hoping they enjoy the uniqueness of it and the
design and see it as a piece of art," Centner said.
"The whole overall objective was to create a central
point for four buildings. This will bring it all together."

Expanded loan forgiveness plan helps schools
Cronkite News Service/East Valley Tribune
2/7/09
A loan forgiveness program that helps Arizona schools
attract math, science and special education teachers
should be broadened to help rural and inner-city
schools attract teachers with any specialization, a state
lawmaker contends. "Some districts are experiencing
across-the-board shortages that aren't just math and
science teachers," said Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe.
He has introduced legislation to expand a law that for-
gives the student loans of teachers who commit to
staying in Arizona to teach math, science or special
education in public schools. HB 2293 would apply to
teachers with any specialization who commit to work
in a geographic area deemed by the state to have a
serious teacher shortage. Schapira cited Yuma,
Payson and American Indian reservations as areas
that would benefit from the change.

Gov.: More cuts to education aid possible
Capitol Media Services /East Valley Tribune
2/6/09 5:07PM
Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday she's unwilling to rule
out even deeper cuts next year in state aid for
education. The new governor's comments came
close to a week after she signed a modified budget
for the current year that cuts $141 million in university
funding, $133 million in state aid to public schools
and took $9 million away from community colleges.
Overall cuts totaled about $570 million, with funds
taken from special accounts and an anticipated
$500 million in federal stimulus dollars making up
the balance of the $1.6 billion gap between revenue
and expenses. Even with those cuts, though, the
deficit next year is still projected at close to $2.4
billion. Brewer said fixing that hole will require that
everything be on the table, including further
education cuts.

Billions of dollars to aid colleges, students
Arizona Daily Sun 2/9/09
DURHAM, N.C. -- The stimulus plan emerging in
Washington could offer an unprecedented, multi-
billion-dollar boost in financial help for college
students trying to pursue a degree while they ride
out the recession. It could also hand out billions
to the states to kick-start idled campus
construction projects and help prevent tuition
increases at a time when families can least afford
them. But cuts of $40 billion for state and local
governments in the Senate version were a big
disappointment for college leaders. House-Senate
negotiations will determine whether education aid
to the states is relatively modest or massive -- and
how much gets directed to high-need institutions
for building projects, versus elite universities that
would benefit if the final package spends more of
the money on scientific research.

Applying knowledge
Arizona Daily Sun 2/9/09
....Volunteers from both Coconino Community College
and NAU's financial aid offices answered questions
and helped people navigate the sea of paperwork
required for students to obtain financial aid. This year,
there is a sense of urgency about the process, as both
CCC and NAU are expecting to see a 10 percent to 20
percent increase in the number of students applying
for financial aid. Furthermore, the budget cuts that
NAU and CCC are facing could mean a reduction in
the amount of aid that the colleges can offer some of
their neediest students. "The financial aid process is
competitive, and the earlier you apply the better chance
you have of getting a financial aid package," said Bob
Voytek, director of financial aid for CCC.

UPH chief faces challenges on 3 fronts
Arizona Daily Star 2/9/09
The recently named president and chief executive
officer of University Physicians Healthcare has worn
a couple of different hats in the 17 years he's lived in
Tucson. After leaving his digs in Washington, D.C.,
Larry Aldrich spent his first eight years in the Old
Pueblo at the helm of Tucson Newspapers Inc.,
which handles advertising, circulation and production
for both the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Citizen. He
took a stab at launching a venture-capital business,
but it never got much traction as the dot-com bubble
burst in the early 2000s. He was also with the Critical
Path Institute — a UA partnership with the Food and
Drug Administration that aims to speed up drug
development — in its early years. Aldrich now heads
the three divisions of UPH: its physicians group
practice affiliated with the University of Arizona College
of Medicine, its health plan and UPH Hospital at Kino
Campus.

Editorial: What state budget cuts will mean here
Arizona Daily Star 2/8/09
Our view: Fewer cultural activities, more people
out of work, less schooling . Last week, the Arizona
Legislature slashed more than $1 billion from the
current budget, savings that state-supported
agencies, schools and universities must realize
through June 30, when the fiscal year ends. Those
cuts aren't merely ink on paper in Phoenix. They will
harm our quality of life in Southern Arizona, depress
our area's economy further by causing people to
lose their jobs and savage our childrens' educational
experience, both in K-12 schools and the state's
universities.

Research funds cut to rectify AZ deficit
Arizona Daily Star 2/9/09
PHOENIX — Millions of research dollars allocated
for public-private partnerships at the University of
Arizona will evaporate as part of a state budget fix
approved last week by the Legislature. And three
first-term Tucson-area lawmakers were part of a
group of 12 House Republicans who refused to
vote for the budget unless the research money
was eliminated. In all, $22.5 million was in the
state fund, which is granted to the state's three
universities and other research institutions
through a non-profit organization called Science
Foundation Arizona. Republican Reps. Frank
Antenori, David Gowan and David Stevens say
such projects — ranging from cancer research
and work on solar, mining and genomics
technology — amount to nothing more than
corporate welfare because the UA was
partnering with private businesses, such
as Raytheon Missile Systems and Intel.

UA students partner with teachers
Arizona Daily Star 2/9/09
Here was the reality of life last year for seventh-grade
social studies teachers. For years, they'd been teaching
geography. Then came whole new state standards for
teaching American history — a curriculum that included
recent events such as the passage of the Patriot Act.
Perhaps some teachers had the Industrial Revolution
down cold, but there were other gaps in their knowledge.
Survival mode meant staying one chapter ahead of the
kids in the textbook. And when they got to the Battle of
the Bulge, for example, they just had to hope there
weren't too many questions. Not so for 200 teachers
in the Tucson Unified School District, who gained
expertise in their craft thanks to a three-year, $1 million
federal grant and the assistance of several partners,
including the University of Arizona, the Arizona
Historical Society and the Teachers' Curriculum
Institute.

UPH Hospital taxpayer costs a challenge for UA
official
Arizona Daily Star 2/8/09
The UA's vice president for health affairs says he's
going to do what he can to reduce taxpayer costs at
UPH Hospital, but that it may not be possible. "If you
look at the actual patient-care cost versus payment
received from third-party payers, on average we lose
money in each case," Dr. William M. Crist said in an
interview last week. "Thus, I don't see a formula at
this time that predicts costs are going to go down."
He stressed that UPH has an unusually high volume
of underinsured and uninsured patients. "Therefore
there is a cost that can't be recovered," he said. "We
can't begin to break even like most hospitals." Crist
oversees UA's partnership with University Medical
Center, University Physicians Healthcare and UPH
Hospital, among other responsibilities.

State has slim pickings in cuts to fix $2.4B deficit
Arizona Daily Star 2/8/09
PHOENIX — How big is Arizona's budget deficit? Some-
where in the neighborhood of $2.4 billion — that's about
$400 for every man, woman and child in the state. If you
stacked $2.4 billion worth of dollar bills, they'd reach
about 150 miles high — longer than a one-way trip from
Tucson to Phoenix. You know the University of Phoenix
stadium in Glendale where the Cardinals play? Well,
the state could build five of those 70,000-seat structures
with $2.4 billion. "I almost feel like the Good Ship Lollipop
has sailed out to sea and I'm sitting here on the Titanic,"
Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday about the budget crunch
she inherited a few weeks ago when she took office.

And UA's No. 1 party dorm is …
Arizona Daily Star 2/8/09
While the UA's Coronado Hall has long been perceived
as the university's party pad, the rowdiest dorm dwellers
live in Sky View Apartments, disciplinary data show. The
UA-leased apartment complex two blocks south of
campus has about one-third the population of Coronado
— the institution's largest dormitory — yet its residents
had more university violations per capita than any other
residence hall. Students in Sky View averaged nearly
1 1/2 violations for every resident, busted for everything
from being too noisy to drinking underage or using drugs,
according to an Arizona Daily Star analysis of dormitory
disciplinary records for the 2007-08 academic year.

Our Opinion: Cox gives boost to UA students
Tucson Citizen 2/9/09
With tuition costs soaring and state support for the
University of Arizona sagging, good news arrived
this week from Cox Communications. Cox has
become the first member of the Arizona Assurance
scholarship program's Corporate Circle by donating
$100,000. Arizona Assurance covers all college
costs for in-state students from families with an
adjusted gross income of $42,400 or less per year.

UA business spinoffs up, but money from them to
school dips
Tucson Citizen 2/9/09
The University of Arizona is pushing high-tech
innovation from laboratories to the marketplace.
But while UA is posting record numbers of
business spinoffs, revenue paid to the school
from technology transfer agreements continues
to decline. Six new companies based on
technology developed by UA faculty and staff
were launched in fiscal year 2008 ending June
30, said Patrick Jones, director of the UA Office
of Technology Transfer. Startups are companies
that have completed a licensing agreement with
UA for intellectual property critical for the business,
he said.

UA Museum of Art will charge $5 admission fee
Tucson Citizen 2/9/09
The University of Arizona Museum of Art has initiated
a $5 admission fee for adults who are not UA
students or faculty. The Museum has not previously
charged admission, although people could buy a
membership to support the organization. UA
President Robert N. Shelton said early last week
that all UA museums and outreach programs would
be significantly affected by the state budget cut to the
university system.

UA's architecture program recognized among best
in nation
Tucson Citizen 2/9/09
The University of Arizona's College of Architecture
and Landscape Architecture was recognized by
DesignIntelligence in December as one of
America's best architecture and design under-
graduate schools. The Georgia-based magazine
ranked the undergraduate program 12th among
120 public and private accredited design schools
across the United States. Nader Chalfoun, a
professor and coordinator of design and energy
conservation, said the college integrates sustain-
ability in its coursework. Coursework is in four
major areas of study: history, design
communication, building technology and critical
practice. "It makes us very proud and it crowns
our efforts in sustainability," Chalfoun said.
Colleges were ranked by professionals, deans
and students.

Businesses: Don’t let budget cuts hurt economy
Phoenix Business Journal 2/6/09
Business interests want the state to keep its eyes
on the economic ball when it comes to dealing with
next year’s $3 billion budget shortfall, but decisive
lines are being drawn by the business community
on spending cuts and taxes. Glenn Hamer, president
of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry,
said the state should steer clear of tax increases
to deal with the deficit. Business leaders say they
understand the need to cut spending in a multitude
of areas, including economic development, job
training, university research, health care and tourism,
but they don’t want to the Legislature to decimate
programs that have economic benefits.

This week in the House: tobacco ban, partial-birth
abortion and firecrackers
Arizona Capitol Times 2/9/09
This week, the Arizona House of Representatives
plans to debate a proposal that would ban partial-
birth abortions, legislation that would prohibit tobacco
use among inmates in state prisons and measures
to fix some problems with the revised fiscal 2009
budget. But first, lawmakers will start the week with
a hearing in Flagstaff that aims to give members of
the Education Committee a chance to hear from
officials at Northern Arizona University and the region's
school administrators. The hearing at NAU today will
feature presentations by NAU President John Haeger,
superintendents of local school districts and the
business community.

Opinion: Finally, governments are reacting to the
economy
Inside Tucson Business 2/6/09
It has taken governments longer to react to the economy
than most businesses in the private sector but it’s finally
happening. At the state level, leaders moved with
uncharacteristic speed at the end of January to come up
with $1.3 billion that, on paper, rectifies the current fiscal
year’s budget deficit that’s estimated will be $1.6 billion
by the end of June. So what’s $300 million difference?
Isn’t that where the phrase “close enough for government
work” comes in? .....Despite earlier threats of larger cuts,
the state’s universities begrudgingly put together cuts
they say they can live with. Some conservative lawmakers
had targeted the universities - they have too many pointed-
headed liberals, don’t ya know - but as we said last week
they aren’t doing this state any good by hurting the
university system. There is some real learning — and in
the case of the University of Arizona, some cutting-edge
research — that takes place at our state’s institutions.

UA's Eller MBA ranked among best in world
Inside Tucson Business 2/6/09
The MBA program at the University of Arizona’s
Eller College of Management was ranked by
Financial Times as the fifth best among public
universities in the United States, 19th best
among all U.S. institutions and 41st among all
in the world. Also, the news organization based
in the United Kingdom ranked the McGuire Center
for Entrepreneurship at No. 9 in the world. "The
Financial Times rankings are significant because
they measure educational return on investment,"
said Paul R. Portney, dean of the UA’s Eller
College of Management.

People in Action
Inside Tucson Business 2/9/09
Awards, honors, and recognitions - John A. Szivek,
professor in the UA Department of Orthopedic
Surgery and a researcher in the Arizona Arthritis
Center, has received a $125,000 grant from the
Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation for his
research on creating cartilage tissue for use in
bone grafts. He was one of only 13 researchers
nationwide to receive a grant from the Foundation
in 2009.

Settlement spurs safety coordinator position
ASU Web Devil 2/9/09
Student safety policies at Arizona’s universities
will improve after comprehensive reviews from
the Arizona Board of Regents’ student safety co-
ordinator, officials said. The new position was
created by the Arizona Board of Regents as part
of a court settlement to review and reform student
safety policies within the university system. The
coordinator’s job is to implement necessary
changes in the university system’s sexual
harassment policies, designate safety officials
at each university and provide annual reports to
ABOR about student safety issues. Nancy
Tribbensee, ABOR general counsel, was
named the first student safety coordinator. She
said in an e-mail that her first task is to review
university and ABOR policies relating to sexual
assault, harassment, discrimination and gender
equity. “Each university has undertaken significant
and comprehensive campus safety reviews in
recent years,” she said.

Comments: Jonathan Eberle: Budget cuts will
be crippling to all of NAU
jackcentral.com 2/5/09
If you still doubt the severity of the economic
recession here at home, consider the fact
that the Arizona State Legislature is slashing
NAU’s budget for the rest of this fiscal year by
an estimated $31.2 million. This cut is
supposed to ease the $3 billion budget deficit,
but cutting education is the worst move the
state could make at this crucial time. We’re
already seeing the repercussions of these
cuts in the closure of the Center for High
Altitude Training on campus. The center’s
four employees are now unemployed. This
is undoubtedly only the start of a long list of
tragedies. President Haeger’s budget plan
repeatedly states they will only lay off
employees after all other options have been
eliminated. As a result of these cuts, tuition
rates and fees will increase, class sizes will
increase and programs will lose funding.
The entire university will bear the pain of
these cuts. And that’s just for the 2009 fiscal
year. Next year, NAU’s share of the cuts could
be as much as $50 million.

President finalizes FY09 budget reduction plan
NAU News 2/9/09
Northern Arizona University will implement furloughs
this fiscal year only for the president, vice presidents
and academic deans while deferring campus-wide
furloughs until fiscal year 2010, according to the final
FY09 budget plan announced today by NAU President
John Haeger. Haeger said that he and the university's
vice presidents and academic deans will take three
furlough days between now and June 30. In FY10,
which begins July 1, university employees making
$40,000 per year and higher will take up to seven
furlough days during the year. Employees earning
less than $40,000 per year will take up to two fur-
lough days. The FY10 furlough program is expected
to save the overall university budget about $3 million.
"I have received a tremendous amount of feedback
from the faculty, staff and administration and took all
that input into consideration in making this furlough
decision," Haeger said. "It also became apparent that
there are a lot of issues regarding furloughs that must
be carefully considered. Waiting to implement campus-
wide furloughs in FY10 will give us sufficient time to
work through the policy issues and the details of the
implementation plan."

Light rail to link UA, downtown
UA Daily Wildcat 2/9/09
Tucson will soon have a modern streetcar, and
although it's not going to be called Desire, it is
definitely what Tucson residents want, said Fran
LaSala, assistant to the city manager. The public
streetcar, set to open Nov. 11, 2011, would act
as a passageway from downtown Tucson to the
UA, LaSala said. So what exactly is a "modern"
streetcar? It's going to look more like a light-rail
train than a traditional streetcar - sleek, with a
driver's car at each end and a car for passengers
in the middle. LaSala said it would run on a street-
car-like track in the road. The streetcar will be
electric, with tracks below and a cable above, and
will be quiet and relatively inexpensive to operate,
he said.

Survey to assess student fee
UA Daily Wildcat 2/9/09
If you looked closely at your tuition and fees trans-
actions for this semester, you probably noticed a
charge labeled "Student Services Fee." Enacted
in the fall of 2008, the Student Services Fee has
gone toward several student priorities, such as
more exterior and interior seating at the Student
Union Memorial Center. Even the Savvy Student
$3 lunches available on Wednesdays are
supported by the fee, according to the Student
Affairs Web site. Stephen Bieda, president of
Graduate Professional Student Council and an
atmospheric sciences graduate student, said
a survey was sent out via e-mail to determine
students' priorities regarding the student fee in
the next fiscal year.

The Senate Sheds Education Aid
Inside Higher Ed 2/9/09
A compromise amendment worked out by
moderate Democrats and Republicans in
the U.S. Senate late Friday slashed billions
of dollars that would have flowed to colleges
and universities in the Senate’s original
version, with the biggest cuts coming in
education aid to states and funds to
modernize college facilities. To the relief
of advocates for students, the compromise
legislation sustained $13.9 billion to increase
the maximum Pell Grant for needy students,
which budget cutters had eyed.

Gordon Gee’s Call for ‘Reinvention’ of Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed 2/9/09
WASHINGTON — Noting that the United States
created land-grant colleges in the middle of the
Civil War, E. Gordon Gee told his fellow college
presidents Sunday evening that the current
economic crisis is no reason not to consider
bold and far-reaching reforms of the institutions.
“I am calling for intentional upheaval at our
colleges and universities just when fiscal chaos
already places us on the edge,” Gee said here
at the annual meeting of the American Council
on Education. The choice for higher education,
he said: “reinvention or extinction.”

Salary Cap for Bailout Recipients Fires Up Critics
of College Presidents' Pay
The Chronicle of Higher Education 2/6/09
Not that anger over presidential pay ever went out
of style, but President Obama’s new pay limit for
CEO’s has provided ammunition to critics of
college presidents’ salaries. The Treasury
Department’s plan, announced on Wednesday,
would cap annual salaries at $500,000 for top
executives of companies that receive substantial
amounts of federal bailout money. The plan
includes exceptions for restricted stock, and is
more rigid for companies receiving future “
exceptional assistance” from the government.
The rules do not apply to college presidents, of
course. While universities are among the possible
recipients of stimulus money, those funds would
not be handed down directly from the federal
government, as it was with banks and other
corporations. But as was the case with tightened
accounting rules in the wake of the Enron and
WorldCom collapses, the spirit of the new
regulations might trickle down to colleges.

Skeptics Say Billions for Education Won't Stimulate
Economy
The Chronicle of Higher Education 2/9/09
The economic-stimulus legislation before Congress
includes billions for colleges and students, but some
analysts question whether such an infusion of money
would actually contribute to jump-starting the economy.
A stimulus bill working its way through Congress
would help thousands of students pay for college and
could give colleges money to fix crumbling buildings.
But would spending billions of dollars on education
really kick-start the economy? That's the question
many legislators and policy experts in Washington
were asking last week as the U.S. Senate debated
the roughly $900-billion measure.

Dr. Matthew Ladner: Please ignore the academic
catastrophe behind the curtain
Goldwater Institute/American Daily 2/9/09
The current discussion over higher education funding
provides a good opportunity to ask: what is it we want
from state universities? I, for one, am confused by
videos Arizona State University has posted on You
Tube, like one called “University as Entrepreneur.“
This video uses buzzwords like innovation,
entrepreneur, empowerment, experiential, sustain-
ability, and (my favorite) the New American University.
The proper definition for entrepreneur, however, is “
a person who has possession of an enterprise, or
venture, and assumes significant accountability for
the inherent risks and the outcome.“ Who then is
being held accountable for the fact that 72 percent
of Arizona State University students fail to graduate
on time? The word that comes to mind when I see
a 28 percent four-year graduation rate isn’t innovative
or entrepreneurial, it’s unfocused.