JON HELGASON

The Arizona International College may close after reamining the center of a debate over college management, funding and tenure since 1996.

Friday November 2, 2001

Arizona International College mismanaged, a mistake from the start, some say

Although the Arizona International College has been the center of debate since its inception six years ago, those who favor it agree with those who oppose it that the college was doomed from the start.

The end is near for the liberal arts college that was to be the non-research oriented institution where students would receive personal attention from professors.

University of Arizona President Peter Likins announced on Oct. 11 that he would ask the Arizona Board of Regents to begin the process that would close the college by 2006 at its next meeting, Nov. 29 and 30.

However, AIC's supporters say the college never had a fair chance from the beginning.

"When you starve a program to death, it's going to die," said former UA president Manuel Pachecho.

Pacheco - the current president of the University of Missouri - was UA president when the college was formed. He said he thought the college was a worthwhile venture that would have succeeded if given the chance. But, if faced with the decision of where to make budget cuts, said he would have chosen to close the college.

Hank Amos, one of the regents who will decide the AIC's fate in the upcoming meeting, said he has not yet decided which way he will vote. But he said Likins will have to make a compelling case for why the college should close amid growing enrollment in Arizona universities.

"One of the things that I'm concerned about is that AIC was developed to meet growing enrollment needs," Amos said, adding that projections indicated UA enrollment would expand from approximately 31,400 to approximately 39,900 students by 2015.

Amos added that due to lack of funding and the Legislature's ever-present threat to close the college, instability pushed high school seniors away from the college.

Others say that the college, and not the funding, was flawed from the start.

"AIC was an institution that was poorly conceived to begin with due to lack of tenure lack of support of research, and loss of academic freedom to state what's really on your mind," said Carol Bernstein, professor of microbiology and immunology.

When tenure is not offered, UA professors say they feel insecure in their jobs, which causes them to inflate grades to keep students happy and avoid complaints, Bernstein said.

Untenured professors cannot risk losing their jobs by expressing ideas, in class or otherwise, that would upset UA administrators, and this limits academic freedom, Bernstein added.

Bernstein added, however, that UA administrators should "follow their commitment to students, and deliver the education they promised.

"You do have to phase out the faculty gradually, and the students will not get quite as good of an education as they were promised, which is consumer fraud."

Bernstein was among many professors on the Faculty Senate in 1996 and 1997 who voiced their discontent with AIC management. Twenty-eight UA professors presented a petition in October 1997 arguing that the college should be closed. The administrator of AIC at that time, Celestino Fernandez, announced his resignation the day after the petition was received.

The petition called AIC "a huge waste of taxpayers' money and an embarrassment," and charged that the institution diverted "precious resources" from the UA.

Jerry Hogle, now a member of the task force assigned to oversee the closure of the college, was one of the professors who signed the petition to close AIC in 1997. Hogle helped Likins establish the goal that the college should be fiscally independent between 2000 and 2003 - a goal that was not met.

An Arizona Daily Star staff editorial from Oct. 18, 1997, said that establishment of AIC read "like a primer on how not to start a new venture."

AIC was opened with 45 students in 1995 at a research park, formerly an IBM plant, at South Rita Road and Interstate 10.

Several UA professors who asked not be named said that the college was located far from campus in order to raise real estate values nearby and attract local retired professors who could teach a course or two.

In 1997, Likins became president of the UA and moved AIC from its South Rita Road location to its present location at 1609 E. Helen St. in order to boost enrollment. Then the debates began.

Editorials from faculty members who wanted the college closed and UA administrators in support of the college filled the pages of local newspapers.

One professor, who had argued that the AIC was draining UA resources in an Arizona Daily Star article on Oct. 14, 1997, addressed the college closure.

"I feel bad for the faculty there, and for the students, but I never saw it as a long-term project that would blossom into a college," stated Regents professor of history Oscar Martinez.