Campus Town Hall addresses freeze, campus diversity

BEN DAVIDOFF/Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA President Peter Likins and Provost George Davis discuss the UA's hiring freeze with concerned Tucsonans at yesterday's Campus Town Hall forum in Crowder Hall. They said the freeze will be lifted Dec. 1 if the state Legislature does not ask the UA to cut more than 4 percent from its budget.

The university's hiring freeze could be lifted Dec. 1 if the university is spared from additional budget cuts, said UA President Peter Likins and Provost George Davis at yesterday's Campus Town Hall.

About 100 people attended the fifth annual Town Hall, which was billed as a chance for the UA community to discuss important issues with the two highest administrators on campus.

At the forum, Likins and Davis said the freeze will end at the beginning of the month if the state Legislature, which is currently meeting to define the size of statewide budget cuts, decides not to eliminate more than 4 percent from UA's budget.

The UA has already been asked to cut $13.9 million from its budget.

It could be asked to eliminate more, although the Legislature faces pressure from Republican Gov. Jane Dee Hull and university lobbying groups to hold the cuts at 4 percent.

Davis said it is "safe to say" that if the cuts remain at 4 percent, the hiring freeze, which was instated in early October, will be lifted.

He said the freeze was created to give deans and department heads more financial options when they were eventually asked to cut their budgets.

It prevented large amounts of money from going "out the door" early in the year, Davis said.

Because the UA was able to pull money from places such as the advising task force and Campaign Arizona, Likins said deans and department heads had an easier time meeting the cuts.

Still, he said officials realized when the cuts were announced in September that staff would be hurt.

He said 85 percent of the state-funded budget that is being cut goes to funding for personnel.

"Layoffs will be few in number," he said. "But they will not be zero."

The issue that dominated the discussion, however, revolved around a question from a faculty member about workplace diversity.

Likins said the solution to creating more diversity in the university workplace will not come from money.

Several studies conducted by the UA, including the Millennium Project, have found that women and minority employees at the university do not have equal opportunities.

Likins said the discrepancy in treatment and pay is a "call to serious responsibility from the university."

He said the issue will not be solved just through money, but rather with a change in the "climate" on campus.

"We need to change our culture," he said. "If we can improve this situation · we can become a better place to work."

He pointed to the Grace Report, which examined salaries of women in the Arizona Health Sciences Center. That study found that, on average, women are paid less than men.

Likins said that particular issue revolves around money, but overall the change in attitude will not come about from just investing.

"The NCAA, the Millennium Project and the Grace Report all create a context for a dialogue on these issue," Davis said.

He said Vice Provost Elizabeth Ervin will be joining forces with researchers at Harvard University to examine the problem and come up with solutions.

Saundra Taylor, vice president of Campus Life, also spoke briefly at the Town Hall. She said a position is being created within the university to directly combat the diversity issue.

"We don't want to shelve this position in the middle of budget cuts," she said.

Hull, who called for the cuts in September, said she would like the state Legislature to make a decision on the size of the cuts before Thanksgiving, but the special session could run into December.