By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
The UA has its very own advocate for higher education in Ruth Solomon. The District 14 state senator represents the University of Arizona at the state legislature. She is also the new leader of the senate appropriations committee.
And she could help the UA achieve several of its funding goals, including raising tenured track professors' salaries.
At Tuesday's Joint Legislative Budget Committee meeting, both the state house of representatives and the state senate, along with Governor Jane Hull, agreed to allocate state funding to higher education.
However, professor salaries still need to be raised. Neither Hull or the JLBC addressed this problem directly in Tuesday's meeting.
Solomon believes that the state has focused much of its attention on K-12 education, and now ought to put university education higher up on its list of priorities.
"We need to pay tenured faculty accurately," Solomon told the Wildcat earlier this week. "Not only do we lose them to other states, but the focus on the new economy suffers as well."
With Solomon as an advocate, the UA ought to expect the state legislature to raise professor salaries, and to continue steady state-level funding for higher education.
