Proposed elimination one of 16 Focused Excellence cuts

The School of Planning's fate remains up in the air nearly eight months after administrators announced their proposal to eliminate it under Focused Excellence.

The elimination of the School of Planning was one of 16 proposed cuts announced by administrators last January. Then in April, administrators said that they had decided to spare the School of Planning, moving it out of the College of Architecture and into the College of Public Health.

But when it became apparent that the move to the College of Public Health would be too expensive, administrators once again proposed to put the school on the chopping block, said Provost George Davis.

"That issue is still on the table, so to speak, and I can't tell you what the outcome will be. We're giving the faculty and others the opportunity to develop their strategies and present their arguments," said President Peter Likins.

But the administration at the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, which houses the School of Planning, expressed doubts.

"We are now acting on the last specific information that we have, and that is that the program will be closing in two years. And we are not happy about that," said Corky Poster, acting dean of architecture.

As recently as 1997, CAPLA was simply the College of Architecture. Planning and landscape architecture were added in order to form a rich, diverse college of three sister professions, Poster said.

"The interdisciplinary nature of the education, where all three of those schools are present, is fabulous. We've lost that, and it's a shame," she said.

Despite seeing the design process for a new building put on hold, and a disruption in fundraising for that building, students have remained upbeat in the wake of the elimination plans, Poster said.

"The students had really begun to embrace the interdisciplinary concept, and they're a little perplexed, but overall morale is okay," she said.

Max Benson, who has been in the planning program for two and a half years, was one of a group of about 30 students and supporters that pleaded for the Arizona Board of Regents to save the planning school at the ABOR meeting Aug. 14 and 15.

"It seems they've picked out the smaller departments to get rid of, and it doesn't matter how excellent we are or not," Benson said, referencing the school's status as one of the leading programs among the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the organization through which the school is accredited.

Barbara Becker, the director of the School of Planning, said that the school's financial situation might have played a role in administrators' decision.

Unlike some of the programs that were initially slated for elimination and were later spared, the School of Planning has had trouble finding major donors, Becker said.

Mark Holden, a second-year planning student who has been a biologist in land management for 15 years, said he doesn't understand administration's decision, given how important planning is in the community.

"I get tired of hearing the argument that it's got to be economics or the environment. I think it goes hand in hand, and to get rid of a program that addresses that doesn't make any sense. If you don't have a healthy environment, ultimately you're not going to have a healthy economy," he said.

Becker also noted the School of Planning's role in the Tucson community.

"We actually are a big interface with the communities within the state," Becker concurred.

For example, the City of South Tucson was looking to rejuvenate South Fourth and South Sixth avenues, but had no money to do so. The School of Planning put together a set of ideas that resulted in grant money for the city to complete the projects.

Becker said such processes are not uncommon for the planning school and that it is partnerships like those that create jobs within communities.

"The irony is, until the last two years when the budget became the big thing to talk about, growth was the big concern in the state," said Becker. "Our profession is in greater demand in the state than ever before, so the timing is a little strange."

Becker said the school is highly specialized, with an emphasis on environmentally healthy cities and international borderlands, but she did not agree that UA would save much money by eliminating the program.

"Getting rid of us saves very, very little," she said.

But administrators see it differently.

The decision to eliminate the school was an outgrowth of both its small size and budgetary constraints, said Provost George Davis.

"We've had to really remember the money we've given back to the state in terms of deep, deep budget cuts," he said.

The programs slated for elimination were commonly very specialized programs, he said. The School of Planning does not offer an undergraduate degree or Ph.D., nor is it money-generating, he added.

"The programs that were most at-risk were the ones that were the most, quote, Înarrow in their focuses,'" he said.