Sierra Vista campus seeks independence at Regents meeting

At their two-day meeting beginning tomorrow in Flagstaff, the regents will discuss changing the University of Arizona Sierra Vista's name to the University of Arizona Southern Campus and revising its mission statement to include campus growth in the surrounding community.

The campus, with 239 full-time students, has been expanding by adding classes taught in Douglas, said Dean Randall Groth.

He said future classes may be held in Benson and Nogales.

Sierra Vista's name and mission statement must be changed before it seeks separate accreditation from the North Central Association through its Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, Groth said.

"Our name and mission will be more in line with our goal," he said.

The next step for Sierra Vista, which has been a branch campus since March 9, 1995, is to become independent, he said.

"Any time we want to design new programs and such we have to go through the main campus," Groth said. "After accreditation we will not have to do that anymore."

Groth said he hopes the branch campus, which provides students with upper division and graduate class work, will become more autonomous and gain flexibility when it receives accreditation, hopefully next fall.

The regents will also consider extending UA's Head Basketball Coach Lute Olson's contract two more years and approving budget increases necessary to update safety features in the Arizona State Museum.

"Given the nature of the (coaching) job, if each coach went year to year, we would be without recruits," said university Attorney Mike Proctor, who said the extension would be the only change to Olson's contract.

Olson's present contract, which would expire April 30, 2000, is expected to be extended through 2002.

The Arizona State Museum will be seeking a budget increase to begin Life Safety Improvements - renovations to the building's sprinkler and alarm systems - mandated by the Fire Marshal.

If the regents increase funding from $819,000 to $1.48 million, renovation would begin mid-October, said Hartman Lomawaima, the museum's interim director.

He said the museum is also seeking revised conceptual approval for the first of two renovation and expansion projects.

This first project, Lomawaima said, would renovate the existing building for exhibitions and public programs.

"I spoke with the regents informally at their last meeting (Aug. 21-22)," he said. "They agreed it would be a good time to renovate."