The Flandrau Science Center moved one step closer yesterday toward a future home downtown and one giant leap away from the financial chopping block.

Flandrau was one of seven programs that managed to avoid elimination under Focused Excellence, as announced yesterday by President Pete Likins.

The program was originally targeted in Financial Planning Bulletin No. 24, a report earlier in the year outlining the university's recommendations for 16 programs scheduled for restructuring or elimination.

We are being grouped with like-minded institutions that will broaden the future of Flandrau. -Alexis Faust, director of Flandrau Science Center

Following the recommendations, Flandrau underwent two major structural changes.

First, while the center will continue to receive state funding, and remain "intimately linked with Rio Nuevo," it will take a financial hit, as the university's total contributions drop from $718,000 to $543,000.

City officials said they were pleasantly surprised to hear that the university would continue to fund Flandrau, even if not as much as before, during its quest for a home downtown.

"I am absolutely delighted to hear that," said Assistant City Manager Karen Thoreson upon learning that Flandrau will maintain state funding. "It solidifies (UA's) hopes to participate in a downtown science center."

The City of Tucson has hoped to incorporate Flandrau in the Rio Nuevo downtown revitalization project since voters passed proposition 400 in 1999, approving the project.

The second change will relocate the center's central reporting location from the College of Science to the Office of the Vice President for Research.

The report stated the shift of responsibility was meant to allow Flandrau to "recognize its university-wide functions" and to locate it administratively with other university museums.

Alexis Faust, director of the Flandrau Science Center, said the move would allow Flandrau's administration to take advantage of a broader content base for the center, increasing the potential for colleges to contribute input and resources to the center.

"This positions us for a future downtown," Faust said. "We are being grouped with like-minded institutions that will broaden the future of Flandrau."

Faust said that both restructuring moves show the university's support for Flandrau's future downtown.

Faust said the project has been picking up momentum in past months, adding that with the recent addition of museum exhibition designer Ralph Applebaum, who designed the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., the center will be a far cry from the cramped confines of Flandrau's current location.

Still, the future of Flandrau will remain uncertain until the June completion of a Rio Nuevo $250,000 financial feasibility study that will determine the center's profitability. But city officials said it's looking more than likely to make the cut.

Thoreson said that continued funding from the state could play a key role in the feasibility decision-making process, which recently halted plans for a privately funded downtown aquarium.

"One of the critical differences between the science center and the aquarium is the support from the state and the university," Thoreson said.

Thoreson also said that the aquarium's elimination could help Flandrau's future by freeing up more money for the center to be of a "national scope." Flandrau designers have been encouraged by the center's administration to move toward a $20 million facility that Faust proposed earlier in the year.

"The center is framing up very much like we had envisioned it initially," Thoreson said. "I am very encouraged as I look at potential components of the center."

Faust said that although today's announcement and the increasing support from the city are positive indicators that Flandrau will make the move downtown, there remains a possibility that the center will close its doors for good if they are not found financially feasible.

"If the study does not come through as positive the university will close our doors next year. Is that going to happen? I don't think it is," Faust said. "We are staying steady and saying we cannot give up our hopes and dreams for the future."