Provost Paul Sypherd is recommending the UA "take no action" on a commission's study to merge the Journalism Department with other units, a move that would save it from potential elimination.

In a memo to University of Arizona President Manuel Pacheco dated Tuesday and released to the media yesterday, Sypherd states the University of Arizona should further study the Journalism Department to determine whether it serves undergraduates enough to merit keeping.

"In a different fiscal environment, it would be a positive challenge to pursue the commission's recommendations under the belief that the substantial resources would be found," Sypherd wrote.

The Commission on Communication and Information Science released a 105-page report in January recommending that the university consider creating a new academic unit by merging elements of the Management Information Systems, Journalism, Communication, Library Science and Computer Science departments.

Sypherd said in the memo that "there is much to admire" in the commission's report, but that its recommendations could not be implemented "without major restructuring of resources."

Pacheco can now follow Sypherd's recommendations to study the Journalism Department further, accept the commission's merger recommendation or recommend elimination of the department to the Arizona Board of Regents.

In an interview a day after the memo was sent to Pacheco, Sypherd told the Arizona Daily Wildcat he was almost ready to give the president his list of recommendations on the commission's report.

Journalism Department Head Jim Patten said a media organization faxed him the memo late yesterday afternoon and did not want to make a statement until talking to journalism faculty members.

"I really don't know what to say at this moment," he said.

Sypherd asked Pacheco to consider eliminating the Journalism Department following a College of Social and Behavioral Sciences recommendation. A Faculty Senate review committee recommended keeping the Journalism Department and the Faculty Senate voted to support the review committee's findings.

Patten said the department first received the news about possible elimination on April 4, 1994.

Pacheco had recommended closing the Statistics and Physical Education departments, but asked the commission to evaluate the future of information sciences at the UA. The commission, made up of department heads in communications-related fields, studied the issue for nine months before submitting its report to Sypherd in January.

The department has been waiting since then for Sypherd's recommendation.

Sypherd explained in his memo that the UA will experience a budgetary shortfall of $7.8 million next year but should continue to enhance undergraduate education, protect research and concentrate efforts toward improving support areas such as the library and computer services.

"We will have another difficult financial problem this year," Sypherd wrote, "one that will necessitate additional hard decisions."

The president and provost told the Faculty Senate Monday that the budgetary shortfall might lead the administration to cut 10 to 20 low-enrollment degree programs.

Although next year's budget includes $295.2 million from the state, Sypherd said he attributed the shortfall to the rising cost of maintaining campus facilities and decreases in student enrollment.

At Wednesday's Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee meeting, Sypherd said the committee discussed reducing next year's budget by eliminating degree programs that graduate less than 10 students per year.

"I'm confident that in the next few months we will eliminate about a dozen low-enrollment programs," Sypherd said after the meeting.