When the College of Education held a reception to honor new faculty last week, members of the eliminated UA physical education program were welcomed into the university's largest college.

In keeping with the Arizona Board of Regents June edict, the physical education program has been moved into the College of Education to "live out our last days," said Boyd Baker, exercise and sport sciences interim department head.

Or so he thought.

Baker said faculty within the program are reviewing its course offerings to present a plan to the College of Education and University of Arizona Provost Paul Sypherd that will keep a basic physical education program alive at the UA.

"If, in its normal curricular process, the College of Education determines that a physical education major is a viable entity within their college, then they have until the spring of 1997 to say that," Baker said.

"We are very optimistic that a decision will be made very soon," he said.

College of Education dean John Taylor said he feels the portion of the program that prepares physical education instructors for Arizona school districts will remain an active department within his college.

"This is something that is going to happen," Taylor said. "This is basically a relationship that is natural."

In 1994, Sypherd recommended that the physical education program, along with statistics and journalism, be eliminated.

University President Manuel Pacheco supported the recommendation and asked the regents to close the statistics and physical education programs despite Faculty Senate recommendations that they be kept.

Regents approved the request and said physical education should be phased out by May 1998. In statistics, courses and faculty were reassigned to colleges that offer statistics as part of their core requirements.

The journalism department is still waiting for a decision. A commission has submitted a 105-page report to Sypherd that recommends the UA merge information-related departments into one "super department."

Physical education departments can be found within colleges of education at major universities around the country, Baker said.

If kept in the College of Education, the undergraduate physical education major and sport coaching minor would become a part of the college's core offerings, Baker said. Six of the seven tenured faculty members would continue to teach those physical education courses in the College of Education. One tenured faculty member will move to the Psychology Department to cover sports psychology courses, he said.

Baker said moving the core physical education program to the College of Education would represent a "substantial savings" to the university. Sypherd had cited in a proposal that elimination would save the UA $569,220 in salaries for 15 faculty members.

Programs within physical education that will be eliminated include:

• General activity classes for university students;
• Graduate sports administration program, by Spring 1998;
• Graduate athletic training - sports medicine program, by Spring 1997;
• Sports psychology by the end of this semester.

Baker said graduate students in sports psychology will continue their coursework in the psychology department. General activity classes for university students will be offered starting fall 1996 through the Student Recreation Center.

If the College of Education decides to keep the physical education program, Baker said they will lift the moratorium placed on new student enrollment.

Baker said he feels the program will begin admitting students immediately and they will begin recruiting from Pima Community College, their largest source of undergraduate students.

Judy Sorensen, lecturer and undergraduate adviser in the program, said she still sees Pima Community College students, but because of the phase-out, students who cannot finish by May 1998 cannot be admitted. About 60 to 80 undergraduate teaching majors and coaching minors remain in the program.

Sorensen said her job as lecturer remains uncertain. The administration has said it would place faculty members elsewhere if the program is eliminated, she said.

She said it is hard for her to remain optimistic.

"After what we've been through in this process I'm so cynical," she said. "I hope we do continue."