Last week, the Arizona Board of Regents finally named a successor for President Peter Likins. Robert Shelton, executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will take over in July.
While Likins and his administration have emphasized that they should not be regarded as lame ducks, the eye of the university has already begun to turn to the incoming president. Shelton will have a clean slate come July but will soon have to face the current administration's problems.
The second half of Likins' tenure has been defined by a budget crunch brought on by a dramatic decrease in state funding. Likins' answer to the crisis, Focused Excellence, now lies at a critical juncture.
Likins says he is uncertain about the future of Focused Excellence. He wants to allow Shelton as much flexibility as possible. "What happens to Focused Excellence is up to the incoming president," he said.
Shelton should embrace Focused Excellence, addressing its weaknesses to make it more of a reality.
The basic gist of the plan, introduced in 2002, is that the university will focus on stronger departments at the expense of weaker ones, which will allow it to maintain high standards of excellence, if in fewer areas.
Likins was expected to use the plan to cut departments and reduce funding for others. Instead, only minor changes were made, including scaling the School of Planning down to a degree program and eliminating the humanities program.
Much of the limitation of Focused Excellence is the result of political resistance to the elimination of programs. In 2003, controversy erupted over Likins' proposal to eliminate the School of Planning.
Barbara Becker, head of what is now the planning degree program, said that regents were convinced of the necessity of such a program in Arizona, a rapidly growing state. She said that state universities have a mandate to offer a broad range of curricula beyond science, social sciences, art and engineering.
"In this day and time, when people are asking for things like biotechnology, it's hard to head off high-quality programs like philosophy," she said.
Some have said that the program is too vague, and needs further explanation. Others have used harsher words. Bella Vivante, an associate professor of classics, told the Arizona Daily Wildcat in 2004 that Likins' implementation of Focused Excellence "illustrates the extremely poor leadership of the current university administration."
Clearly, Likins has been criticized for attempting to eliminate programs that deserve a place at the university. But he rightfully continues to embrace the logic behind Focused Excellence.
"We have a limited physical capacity. We can get 10 percent bigger, but we can't just grow and grow. That means we have to concentrate on what we do with excellence," he said.
In these financially strapped times, Likins said he believes that he's doing the right thing.
"Anyone in public university education who is waiting for the funding to be restored is delusional," Likins said in an e-mail.
And his plan still has support. As much as there has been resistance to attempts to eliminate programs, many want the plan to go further. Mark Smith, head of the chemistry department, told the Wildcat in 2005 that Focused Excellence hasn't achieved the meaningful reductions that would allow it to fulfill its purpose.
But Likins said that much has changed with Focused Excellence, and that those who can't see it are mistaken.
"People who say that Focused Excellence has not begun are ignoring the very real reallocations that have occurred," he said.
What of the man who will determine Focused Excellence's fate? Shelton, who is just starting to learn his way around UA administration, said he has the Focused Excellence manual and supports the program.
"Overall, I think it's exactly the right thing to do," he said. "I certainly will not abandon it. The idea is to look and see where it needs to be tweaked."
However, Shelton hinted that he will not aggressively seek to eliminate programs. He said that a better option would be to emphasize the strengths of the university by directing funds toward strong programs.
His administration faced a similar funding problem at UNC and responded by eliminating the masters and doctorate programs in Portuguese. But he said that preserving the breadth of offerings at the university is critical.
He pointed to his home department at UNC, physics. As one of the weaker departments, it has received minimal support from the university. However, because a functioning physics department is critical to so many other disciplines, the university could not and would not attempt to eliminate it.
At first glance, Shelton seems to have the right idea; after all, it seems that attempts to eliminate programs have weakened Focused Excellence in the long run.
Shelton should approach Focused Excellence pragmatically. For the university to finally get out of its funding crunch, it will need more action.
Ryan Johnson is an economics and international studies senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.