Faculty chairman pitches UA mission statement addition

The proposal to make UA a student-centered research university was developed by the University of Arizona's Strategic Planning Budget Allocation Committee

Faculty Chairman Jerrold Hogle presented details to the Associated Students as "promises the University of Arizona will endeavor to keep,"

The proposal, which includes a commitment to improve academic advising and rewards for research faculty who focus on students, has the unanimous support of the strategic planning committee, Hogle said.

"It (the proposal) is an attempt to get a campus agreement on what we're doing," he said.

Hogle said he came to the Senate to solicit student input for the plan, which will likely go into effect during the 1999-2000 school year.

"The first people we wanted to speak to were the students," said Hogle, who will also be discussing the ideas with the Faculty Senate and next year's crop of senators.

ASUA Sen. Ben Graff, a member of the committee, said he supports the plan's inclusion in the University of Arizona mission statement.

"I think every student has had a professor that was here more for research than for teaching," he said. "I think the concern is that we're leaning more toward being research-based."

Hogle stressed that this proposal is just a "draft," but that it is an important starting point.

"These are the things that ought to happen," he said. "We try to establish what the university should commit itself to."