UA News

The UA's 2010-2014 strategic plan will be used as a guide.

A new committee is being created to examine The University of Arizona's investment in strategic priorities as budget struggles continue.

Miranda Joseph, chair of the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee, said during Monday's Faculty Senate meeting that the strategic advisory council will look at where and how resources should be invested in the face of impending budget cuts, using the UA's strategic plan as a guide.

The UA has suffered a nearly $77 million cut in state funding this year, and more cuts are expected in the 2010 fiscal year.

"As we make these critical decisions about resources, using our existing strategic plan as a guide makes a lot of sense, precisely because it wasn't created in a crisis moment," Joseph said.

Among the committee's focuses will be the UA's investment in research priorities.

"Hopefully it's an opportunity to articulate some areas in that side of our activities that we would want to be able to protect," Joseph said.

The UA's 2010-2014 strategic plan, "Expanding Our Vision, Deepening Our Roots," emphasizes nine research areas under the strategic direction heading of "Increasing Achievements in Research, Scholarship and Creative Expression." They are:

• Climate, Environmental, Water and Energy Sustainability
• Southwest, Native American Borderlands and Latin American Studies
• Biosciences and Biotechnology
• Optics
• Space Exploration and Observation
• Creative Arts, Languages and Language Acquisition
• Law, Public Policy and Entrepreneurship
• Biomedical and Behavioral Health
• Youth Development Programs

While a similar committee worked last summer to focus on areas in the hard sciences, this new committee will focus specifically on areas in the social sciences, humanities and arts.

Joseph and Leslie Tolbert, the UA's vice president for research, graduate studies and economic development, have compiled a list of potential candidates to serve on the committee, and Provost Meredith Hay told the senate she will be extending invitations to those people this week so their work can begin as soon as possible.

As part of a discussion on the budget at Monday's meeting, the senate also voted to oppose proposed changes to Arizona Board of Regents policies related to administrative and faculty dismissals under budget constraints.

Senator J.C. Mutchler, chair of the Arizona Faculties Council – which has faculty representation from all three state universities – said the Arizona State University administration has asked ABOR to approve an exception that would allow state universities to lay off administrative and certain professional employees with a 90-day notice, and dismiss tenure or tenure-track faculty as a result of program reorganization or closure, without going through dismissal review processes currently in place.

The regents are expected to vote on the issue at their March 13 meeting.

The senate voted to oppose passage of the changes involving the possible release of faculty without more time for study and discussion. Mutchler said Northern Arizona State University's Faculty Senate has passed a similar motion.