By Melissa Prentice
Arizona Daily Wildcat
For those who bet money on the fact that the Arizona Board of Regents could not meet at the UA without hearing about the proposed department cuts Ä they've hit the jackpot.
Although the recommendations regarding the fate of the University of Arizona journalism, physical education and statistics departments will not be presented to the board until either the April or June meeting, the regents will take the opportunity today to review the board policy on dealing with department cuts. Students and faculty from the departments will also have the opportunity to voice concerns to the board during the 11 a.m. "call to the audience."
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The future of the UA's Sierra Vista off-campus center will also be decided today when the board votes on whether to make the campus an official branch campus.
The change would give the campus "greater opportunity to offer more majors and degree programs," a separate line item in the state budget rather than receiving its budget from the UA budget, and would allow the campus to ask the state for capital funding to build and improve campus buildings, said Randy Groth, campus director.
Regents policy requires that before becoming a branch campus, a campus must operate as an off-campus center for five years, must be able to offer a range of academic services similar to those at a main campus and must have enrollment potential of at least 1,500 full-time students after three years.
Since the Sierra Vista campus meets all these requirements, Groth said he does not anticipate any problems receiving approval mid
from the board.
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The City of Tucson will make a presentation to the board about a proposed downtown site for the new four-year campus in Pima County. Mayor George Miller has advocated the downtown campus as part of a "downtown revitalization" project.
Assistant City Manager John Nachbar said Friday's presentation to the board will be the first time the city will announce the proposed location, which he does not want to disclose until then.
The other possible location for the Pima County campus is at the South Rita Road former-IBM facility that also houses a UA research park. The campus is expected to open in Fall 1996.
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The UA is asking for approval to finish 35,491 square feet of unused shell space on five floors of the Marley Building, the home of the College of Agriculture. The project will provide additional research labs, office space and a 75-person lecture hall. The project will be funded from a grant of $6 million over 10 years from the Marley Foundation, a trust from the estate of Kemper and Ethel Marley.
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The UA College of Agriculture asked the board to allow California residents living within 75 miles of Yuma to participate in a Agricultural Technology Management program as state residents. The board currently allows students in the area to participate as residents in other programs at the NAU-Yuma campus.
The UA is the only state university that offers an agriculture program and all program classes would be provided at the NAU-Yuma campus, said Eugene Sander, dean of the college.
"Agriculture is a big industry in the area; chances are if you ate a salad today 90 percent of the lettuce was from Yuma," he said. "There is a lot of students who want to participate in the program."
The college estimates about six students, or 10 percent of the program's enrollment, will take advantage of the new policy.