A year-long ride with the regents

In appraising the year that I have spent representing our state's students at the table with our board of regents there are three issues that were addressed for their impact on students today and in the future.

1) Academic Bonding, Prioritization, Space Utilization, and the IIF Building

Finally, it appears that students are becoming aware that buildings on campus are generally funded via academic bonding which comes from your tuition dollars! Although a facility may cost $20 million, after the selling of bonds, the actual price escalates to approximately $40 million. It is in this light that I have voiced concerns regarding the current and proposed amounts of academic bonding on our campus. Currently, 16 percent of our tuition is used to pay debt service. Based on our multi-year bonding plan, this figure will rise to 27 percent by 2001.

This university cannot continue to spend student dollars without paying careful attention to the impacts of academic bonds on tuition, which by the way, was raised by $48 and $332 this year because of a $10 million "unmet need." Students have made it quit e clear that our priorities on this campus should be the renovation of existing facilities, including our decrepit Student Union. The proposed IIF (Integrated Instructional Facility) Building would require $1.9 million in tuition per year over 20 years fo r construction. Why not take the crucial components from this facility - the computer commons and the first-year advising center - and place them in a renovated Union? Then take the savings and reward the faculty who suffer in technologyless classrooms by increasing the number of renovation projects! We currently apply a national utilization standard of 60 percent use from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for our buildings. I'm not sure if it is just the economist in me, but this seems quite low. Until we are making effe ctive use of, and are upgrading current facilities (i.e. existing classrooms, the Union), I cannot see any justification for new monuments on campus.

2) The Tuition Setting Process

This year, a study group chaired by Regent Hank Amos revamped the way tuition will be set at this institution. Rather than setting an amount arbitrarily as in the past, tuition will be tied to university priorities as forwarded to the Legislature in our b udget request. As a result of this change, students and regents alike will have an understanding of what tuition dollars are actually funding on campus. This year, the $2.7 million additional dollars generated from our tuition increase will be used to fun d undergraduate education, library and information support, and enrollment management initiatives. The key to this new process is student involvement at the front-end, when budget priorities are set.

3) Post-tenure Review

In cooperation with faculty, the regents instituted a new post-tenure process for Arizona's universities. This affects students in two ways. First, you can be assured that faculty now have an incentive to maintain top performance - most do anyhow. Second ly, language was instituted in the policy to insure that "Every annual review of teaching will contain and seriously consider student input, including evaluation of faculty classroom performance in all classes." OUR TEACHER EVALUATIONS MATTER! This input is now included in judging a professor's performance in the classroom.

In closing, I remind you of the words of Bobby Kennedy: "Few of us have the greatness to truly bend history itself. But if each of us selects one small part of this country and works to change one set of circumstances... the collective efforts of all of u s will write the history of this generation." As students collaborate in working together on issues of importance, our efforts will affect not just the university, but the communities, state, nation and world in which we live. Have a great summer.

Jonathan Schmitt is a UA senior who is desperately looking for the perfect UA president. If you'd like to apply, e-mail him at jschmitt@u.arizona.edu