By
Ben Graff and Jerry Hogle
Editor's note: Ben Graff is President of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and on the Executive Committee of the Arizona Students Association. Jerry Hogle is an English professor and the elected Chair of the Faculty at the University of Arizona.
For all of the people at this university - students and faculty - whom we have been elected to represent, November of 2000 is a momentous time. In this month's election next week and over the next several months, we have the opportunity to help make the support for this great enterprise by far the strongest it has been in years. Our main point here is quite simple: we urge everyone who is eligible to get out and vote next Tuesday and to vote for all those candidates and all those positions on propositions that are genuinely supportive of public education and higher education in Arizona. We must not let this opportunity slip away.
As you may know from previous news, we cannot keep the UA a student-centered research university of high national and international standing and of high quality for its students and the whole state unless we have more financial support than we do now. We are starting to lose top-quality faculty to other states (the "brain drain") at a greater rate, both in recruiting and retaining them. We are pushing graduate assistants towards unrealistic workload levels that are not the best for undergraduate education, due more to a lack of resources than good people. We cannot afford to give as many scholarships to students as other public universities can (though we have been doing more and more). We cannot maintain and improve our facilities for education and research when the state keeps underfunding the "building renewal" formula by over two-thirds. We cannot expend those programs (both in the liberal arts and basic sciences and in the professional colleges) most vital to helping students be ready for the best opportunities in the new economy. We cannot ensure greater diversity in our student body and faculty in the absence of enough support for recruitment and retention. And overall we are in danger of losing the ability to compete widely with other universities for the best and most diverse students, graduate assistants, professors, staff, facilities, grant opportunities, equipment and technological infrastructure.
For a long time, this university has been able to hide or stem the erosion that is very gradually occurring in these areas. There has been considerable belt-tightening, reallocation and deferral of expenses and maintenance across the 90s, even though new construction and classroom renovation have been undertaken for our benefit. But as we continue to "bleed internally" both from reallocation and losses of faculty, students and resources to other universities, damage is still being done because we are underfunded overall. Public spending per student at the UA is near the bottom of such expenditures among all the land-grant, public research universities with agriculture colleges and medical schools in the United States. We will be damaged more and more if that continues. We also believe that the responsibility to solve this financial crisis should not fall on the backs of the student body and their families when it comes time to set tuition.
We therefore urge our fellow students and colleagues and all members of our community here to vote "yes" on Proposition 301 next Tuesday. Yes, 85 percent of the dollars from the small sales tax increase proposed here would go to the public K-12 schools in Arizona, the most underfunded public school system per student in America today. That is very important and worthwhile in itself. But 80 percent of the remaining funds would come to the state universities to support programs that contribute to the new economy, which the Regents will determine based on university proposals. At least $15 million and possibly more per year will probably come to the UA from this source if the proposition passes. In addition, a portion of the funds raised will go towards retiring debt on bonds that would be sold to finance public K-12 school buildings under the court-ordered "Students First" program. That stipulation would free up a great deal of general fund money at the state level, so that the universities would be able to make their cases for other resources that are really available when the state legislature reconvenes next January.
Proposition 301, even if it passes, though will NOT solve all our financial problems. We still need increased budgets from the state to improve many things, such as faculty and graduate assistant salaries, advising, and financial aid for both undergraduates and graduate students.
Nevertheless, it's a start.
You may have heard some polls showing that this proposition is likely to pass. We think it should not just pass. It should pass big.
