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Increasing faculty salaries goal for provost candidate


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Arizona Daily Wildcat


By Ryan Gabrielson
Arizona Daily Wildcat,
April 28, 2000
Talk about this story

NY Stony Brook dean Armstrong 1 of 5 left for position

The UA is losing faculty at a startling rate - which is a problem Paul Armstrong said he would try to reverse if he is selected to be the university's next provost and senior vice president of academic affairs.

Armstrong, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at State University of New York at Stony Brook, is one of five candidates to replace Paul Sypherd, who will leave the position in June.

"I know that the University of Arizona is a very strong university," Armstrong said. "There's a lot about it that I find attractive."

Having worked in the Pacific 10 division - at the University of Oregon as chair of the English department - Armstrong was given a chance to get a good impression of the UA.

Armstrong said he liked the UA's student-centered approach and research functions.

"Arizona's got that mission and that mission is a good mission," Armstrong said.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in history and literature at Harvard University in 1971, Armstrong moved on to Stanford University to complete his graduate studies in modern thought and literature.

At Stanford, Armstrong got his first experience at a western university - an experience he took with him to the University of Oregon and hopes to bring to the UA.

"(The UA) is an exciting place for an undergrad," Armstrong said.

While Armstrong said he thinks the UA is a quality institution, he added that there is some room for improvement.

This shouldn't be difficult, Armstrong said, because the university is already student-centered.

"We need to enhance student learning with a focus on inquiry and discovery," he said.

Armstrong said the state legislature's mandates to keep faculty pay increases under 2 percent a year has proved costly to the UA.

Other institutions with more private or state funding offer between 20 and 50 percent increases, he said.

Armstrong said this is going to be a formidable task for the UA's next provost.

"Improving salaries is crucial," he said. "You have an excellent faculty and retaining that faculty is the challenge."

Since UA is a state funded public institution, he added, the funds for salary increases need to come from the legislature.

"I think that's an important challenge in how to make them know how valuable we are," Armstrong said.

Richard Powell, vice president of research and graduate studies and chair of the search committee, said Armstrong has everything that the search committee wants in a provost.

"He has all the background and experience and qualifications we're looking for," Powell said.

To date, Armstrong has only met with the search committee for the next provost.

Armstrong has two forums at the UA to field questions from faculty, students and staff on Monday, May 15, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Memorial Student Union's Rincon Room and Tuesday, May 16, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Arizona Health Sciences Library, room 2102.


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