A new campus.

That is something Celestino Fern'ndez, executive vice president and provost of the Arizona International Campus of the UA, has been working toward since 1990.

Fern'ndez, then the UA's vice president for Academic Outreach and International Affairs, was named to a UA committee looking into ways of dealing with enrollment growth.

That committee was formed by then-UA President Henry Koffler when the Arizona Board of Regents looked at the student enrollment growth at the three state universities and noticed that it had increased during the previous 20 years, Fern'ndez said.

He said the regents, to prepare for an estimated 55,000 more university students and 90,000 more community college students by the year 2015, appointed the Commission on Public Higher Education Enrollment Growth Planning to recommend steps needed to deal with the growth.

According to The Advocate, the newspaper of The American Association of University Professors Arizona Conference, student enrollment at the UA has increased 17 percent since 1979, while Arizona State University's enrollment has increased 22 percent in the same period.

According to the 1995-96 UA Fact Book, the total enrollment at the UA in fall 1995 was 34,777. The UA's total enrollment is capped at 35,000.

By 1993, the commission had finished its study and recommended that new campuses be formed in Maricopa County and Pima County, Fern'ndez said.

At that point, current UA President Manuel Pacheco began looking into a "new university," but there was no vision of what it would be, Fern'ndez said.

"At the time, people didn't believe it would happen."

The regents' initial idea was to have two new campuses, but ASU President Lattie Coor proposed that ASU form a new extension, ASU East, Fern'ndez said.

The UA proposed the formation of a new campus focus toward undergraduate education only, which is where the growth was predicted, Fern'ndez said. He said it would be more costly to start outgrowths of the UA because the focus would be on both undergraduat e and graduate programs, which would all have to be started.

He also said that the UA wanted to focus on what was needed, keeping costs down and using its resources well.

"There are exceptional graduate programs at other universities, but the state doesn't have smaller institutions," Fern'ndez said. "Universities have a difficult time changing. AIC is looking at what are the needs today for students."

And that is what AIC is - a smaller, more focused institution.

Part of the new campus mission states: "The new institution places the highest priority on distinctive liberal arts and practical undergraduate education for a diverse population in an increasingly technological and global society."

Patricia MacCorquodale, director of the UA Honors Center and member of the New Campus' Academic Planning Advisory Committee, said that while developing the curriculum for the new institutions, the committee was trying to develop a gerneral plan.

The Academic Planning Advisory Committee is one of five committees formed by Fern'ndez to help develop the AIC's plan.

MacMorquodale said the committee finally agreed on the institution's focus on interdisciplinary studies and a global perspective.

"It was exciting to develop a curriculum from the ground up," MacCorquodale said. She said the hardest part was separating reality and ideals when developing the curriculum.

Another development that the committee focused on was making the campus a personal environment, said John Boyer, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Arizona Health Sciences Center and a member of the committee.

He said the committee developed the idea of the "house," manageable small groups under a curriculum.

"We had doubts and continue to have them," Boyer said of the "house" idea.

Boyer said he believes AIC has higher expectations of its students than the UA because the new campus' students will go through a more mature process of development in which learning means doing instead of just testing and getting grades. Instead the stud ents are asked, "can you go out and do it?"

Ana Perches, lecturer in the UA's Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a member of the committee for one semester, said the committee was allowed to express all their ideas through brainstorming. She said the hardest thing for committee members was ge tting away from thinking patterns the members grew up with.

And the different type of thinking could be seen when AIC began hiring faculty.

The professors that were hired all believed and had a good record in undergraduate education and have interdisciplinary interests and knowledge, Fern'ndez said.

Fern'ndez said he received 500 applications. From those 500, seven full-time professors were selected.

"Some professors gave up tenure to work at AIC," Fern'ndez said. He said AIC does not offer tenure to its professors, but instead offers professors yearly contracts.

But at least one regent is apprehensive about not having tenure.

"I hope it (AIC) succeeds, but it is an experiment to hire without tenure," said Regent Rudy Campbell.

Professors at AIC are not required to do research or write books to keep themselves up to date, Fern'ndez said. Instead, professors will be given time off under AIC contract to work or study to keep updated, he said.

"This is the largest challenge anyone working here has, but it is rewarding," Fern'ndez said about starting a new university.

AIC'S FUTURE

Five years from now, Fern'ndez said he sees a 1,000 student, independent AIC. He said it will be a university that has a complete academic program with "all the bugs worked out."

The institution is also getting ready for the accreditation process that all universities go through, Fern'ndez said. He said AIC would not have been accredited in its first years without being part of the UA.

Other buildings on the horizon are residence halls and a recreation center, Fern'ndez said.

By that time, the campus should have a personal feel.

"It should be a place where everyone knows each other - professors and students knowing each other," Fern'ndez said. "We want to be a good match for a personalized environment, involved in internships and develop and require to develop a global perspectiv e."

Included in that "global perspective" will be the addition of international students. Fern'ndez said in its first year, one student from China will be attending AIC.

"In a small environment, they (international students) will have an influence," Fern'ndez said.

Fern'ndez said partnerships between AIC and universities throughout the world are currently being considered. These partnerships will allow students to study abroad and to work on a project with a student in another country. He said the initial focus will be making partnerships in Latin America and Asia.

Fern'ndez said there is a reason AIC is focusing internationally.

"Markets are expanding - thinking and acting globally," Fern'ndez said. "For this generation, three to four times they will change careers."

Fern'ndez said some of AIC's goals which are to keep costs down and build networks with other universities and companies, depend on the Tucson community for support and enrollment increase.

AIC's recruiting will be focused in Arizona the first year, with AIC representatives going to every high school in the state to promote the institution.

And how has the public interest of the institution and its ideas been?

"It has been phenomenal," Fern'ndez said.

Also unique to this institution is the fact that employees from the IBM Corp., Microsoft Inc. and Hughes Missile Systems Co. may be used as mentors or employees at AIC, Fern'ndez said. He said Microsoft has also volunteered to have internships for AIC stu dents.

All three companies are also located in the same complex as AIC.

"There is interest for those company employees to become mentors, even part-time employees," Fern'ndez said.

The first class of AIC has 45 students, Fern'ndez said.

But at least two regents are still questioning whether enrollment needs really give reason for a fourth Arizona university.

"I am sorely disappointed in the (enrollment) numbers," said Regent Eddie Basha. "I hope it does not reflect negatively on the university system."

Basha said that from a business perspective, the dollars spent on AIC are "opportunity dollars."

"The facilities were relatively inexpensive and the land and buildings were investments," Basha said.

"For future users of these facilities it will be a boon."

"It (AIC) is in the experimental stage and we need to monitor it carefully until we are satisfied," said Regent Donald Ulrich. "We need to look at enrollment figures. We have some real questions about it, but I can't see spending a whole lot more money on it."

And with some regents doubting, is AIC something the world and Arizona needs?

"I think the world needs it (AIC)," Boyer said. "The world is shrinking everyday and it needs people with international perspective. I'm glad Arizona is taking charge of this."

And is AIC what the students need?

"I think that what they're doing is great," Perches said. "The UA is crowded and for students coming from Pima (Community College), it's a shock. It is important for Arizona to have an institution with closeness - interaction. People have criticized it wi thout giving it a chance."

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