By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Bills defeated, but issues may still be alive
PHOENIX - Bills that would have given the UA funding to combat the growing TA shortage and expanded the Program in Integrative Medicine died in the Senate last week.
Those two bills, along with four other University of Arizona funding requests, were swatted down in the Senate last week after they failed to receive a hearing in the Appropriations Committee.
Although the bills died, the issues are still alive as the Legislature moves forward in the budgeting process, said UA lobbyist Greg Fahey.
One UA funding request - for the South campus in Sierra Vista - was approved, as was a bill to increase state financial aid money (see related story) and two others relating to Arizona's public universities.
Sen. Ruth Solomon, D-Tucson, said that although the bill to increase funding for TAs did not pass, finding a solution to the problem is still "doable" in the budget process.
Solomon cautioned, however, that the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's revenue projections are about $400 million above the governor's estimate, a factor that still clouds the budget picture.
The request for increased funding for TAs was at the top of the UA's list of priorities that President Peter Likins presented to the Senate in January.
Senate Bill 1415 would have given the UA $1.5 million in each of the next two years to hire up to 144 new graduate teaching assistants in an attempt to bring the average workload down to the prescribed 20-hour a week level.
The growing workload problems have TAs now working an average of 20 percent more than their counterparts at UA's peer institutions, with some working 50 percent more than what they are paid for.
The two areas with the greatest TA need are freshman English composition and general chemistry, which have 7,000 and 5,000 undergraduate students, respectively.
"Not only is this crucial, but it is the most important issue we have at the main campus," Fahey told a Senate panel last month.
The plan for a joint UA-Pima northwest campus that would become the new home of the AIC is still alive as well, and will likely receive at least some money, Solomon said.
SB 1533 would have provided the UA's Program in Integrative Medicine $1.125 million in each of the next two years.
The program, established by Dr. Andrew Weil in 1994, combines alternative and conventional medicine and has never received state funding. Solomon said funding for Integrative Medicine is not likely in the budget process.
Also not likely to yield any funds is SB 1534, which would have given the Center for Neurogenic Communication Disorders $1 million in each of the next two years.
The center is internationally renowned for its research on diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, developmental brain disorders and other speech and language disorders caused by diseases of the nervous system.
Another health-related bill, SB 1507, would have provided $600,000 in each of the next two years to the Arizona Health Sciences Center for medical programs, physician training and the public health graduate program at the Phoenix campus.
The funding increase would have funded an expansion of the campus and an increase in the UA's ability to provide health care in rural areas of the state.
Solomon said funding for the AHSC Phoenix campus would likely come as the budget process continues.
The Senate approved SB 1508, which would fund an expansion of the UA South campus, on Thursday by a 20-9 vote.
The bill would give $1.5 million over the next two years to a joint nursing program between the University of Arizona and Cochise College.
The program is geared to address the shortage of nurses with advanced training in southern Arizona. The funding would also support computer equipment and infrastructure for a 22,000-square foot academic technology building that breaks ground in May.
Also approved by the Senate last week were SBs 1085 and 1527.
SB 1085 would protect family savings directed toward a student's college expenses from being counted against the student in determining eligibility for state financial aid.
SB 1527 would exempt certain university records - including intellectual property such as grant proposals - from the Arizona public records law. Both measures now go to the House.
