UA News

The Arizona Board of Regents are scheduled to meet at the UA this week and, given recent discussion about the budget, is expected to draw a large number of students, faculty, staff and community members.

The University of Arizona will host an extraordinary meeting of the Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday, as representatives of the University, business and Tucson communities have indicated that they plan to turn out in large numbers to voice their opposition to massive cuts to university budgets proposed by legislative leaders.

At their regularly scheduled meeting at the UA, regents have been told to expect large numbers of speakers at their designated "call to the audience," a time set aside to take testimony from any member of the public who wishes to speak to the board.

Call to the audience is set for Thursday, Jan. 22 at 1:20 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Arizona Ballroom at the Student Union Memorial Center, 1303 E. University Blvd. Those wishing to speak are advised to arrive early to fill out a brief form that allows the board president to call on speakers accurately.

Top southern Arizona business leaders who have indicated they will attend include Taylor Lawrence, CEO of Raytheon Missile Systems; Dr. Tom Grogan, founder and senior vice president for medical affairs for Ventana Medical Systems; Ron Shoopman, president of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council; Lea Marquez-Peterson, vice chair of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and executive director of Greater Tucson Leadership; and Donald Diamond, chair of Diamond Ventures, Inc.

Students, alumni and parents also have indicated they will come to the meeting in large numbers. At a lunch-time protest staged by UA student leaders on Tuesday, Associated Students of the UA President Tommy Bruce called on the more than 500 students attending the rally to make their voices known at the regents meeting.

One parent, Earl Mendenhall, is co-chair of the UA Parents and Family Association, whose son Connor is currently a UA junior majoring in economics.

Mendenhall said he is coming to speak out against cuts that will leave Arizona crippled for far longer than the current economic downturn.

"We have been monitoring the work of the university as it has gone through recent and more prudent budget cuts," Mendenhall said, referring to the UA Transformation process, which he characterized as a careful overhaul of the University to increase its efficiency while ensuring students get the support services they need to complete quality coursework on time.

"These proposed budget cuts would be in a different category altogether. They would be devastating to everything," Mendenhall said, listing class and professor availability, safety and health services, financial aid and other elements of university life critical to producing quality graduates into Arizona's workforce.

"All of that cascades down to have a bad effect on the state of Arizona," Mendenhall said. "This kind of meat axe approach to university budgets puts (the UA's land-grant mission) in serious jeopardy, and I think it has devastating potential on the kind of students we can recruit."