Board of Regents endorses Hull's budget proposal

Eric M. Jukelevics Arizona Daily Wildcat Richard Gephard, Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives, gives his remarks at the memorial service for former U.S. Representative Morris K. Udall at Centennial Hall on Saturday. Udall, who played basketball at the UA and graduated from the law school, passed away in December at the age of 76 from Parkinson's disease.

The regents voted to endorse Hull's proposal to keep university funding for the next two fiscal years at 1999 levels, and to sell $290 million in revenue bonds to pay for approved K-12 construction projects.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee proposed to cut money from the current budgets, phase out state support for the UA law school and use additional budget cuts to pay for the capital improvements.

"Our governor supports education, but the legislature is different," said Regent Hank Amos. "I am appalled, shocked and embarrassed by the budget that came forth (from the JLBC). Education is so important. It makes me wonder who we elected."

Regent Jack Jewett presented the public awareness committee's report during the meeting held at the University of Arizona's Memorial Student Union. The report included updates on state budget talks and the annual state university system report card.

The report card lists self-evaluative grades given by the three Arizona universities. Each university assigned itself numerical scores in various categories appraised by the schools' provosts to grade the state's higher education system as a whole.

The report card's approval was tabled until the February regents' meeting because grade definitions were changed last year, making yearly comparisons difficult. The universities were asked to reevaluate the grades to determine if any would be different under the altered system.

Board President Judy Gignac pointed out that the university system received a higher grade this year for a category in which it earned the identical numerical score last year.

"We can take another crack at it," Amos said. "We had an example here. The grade stays the same and the level changes? Hello?"

UA Provost Paul Sypherd argued to have the regents accept the report card as presented at the meeting.

"I would urge the board to accept this new grading system as a report to the public," Sypherd said. "We have a new grading system and it comes from our experience."

The following items were also discussed by the regents:

Richard Powell was approved as the new UA vice president for research and graduate studies. Powell was chosen by the UA to replace Mike Cusanovich Jan. 1 after Cusanovich stepped down to concentrate on teaching and research.

The regents approved a five-year contract extension for UA head women's basketball coach Joan Marie Bonvicini. The new contract increases Bonvicini's annual salary $11,000, to $115,000.

The regents gave project initiation approval to the UA to begin designing a $3 million, 15,000 square foot building for the University of Arizona Police Department. The new building would be located on the corner of East First Street and South Campbell Avenue and would be financed by the UA Foundation.

The regents approved the appointment of Audrey Holland and Nicholas Strausfeld to the rank of Regents Professors at the UA. Holland specializes in speech and hearing disorders and Strausfeld is an invertebrate neuroanatomist.

The UA was granted permission to begin planning three new Master of Science degrees with majors in applied biological science, mathematical science, and applied physics. The UA, in conjunction with Arizona State University, was granted permission to implement a doctoral program in history and art theory.