Arizona

This is not the way to keep University of Arizona spending in check

Published

5 months ago

June 21, 2024

Press Room

This is not the way to keep University of Arizona spending in check

Opinion: The University of Arizona’s financial crisis points to the need for greater oversight. A bill headed to the governor takes it away.

Ethan Orr and Mark Stegeman
| opinion contributors

The University of Arizona’s recent administrative blunders resulting in a financial crisis suggest a need for more oversight of university governance, but a measure that the Arizona Legislature sent the governor last week would reduce such oversight.

Aside from its strange timing, House Bill 2735 would tie the hands of future university presidents in a way that contradicts good management practice.

The Senate and House passed this Republican bill with party-line votes, even though it undermines traditional Republican goals.

Neither the state Board of Regents nor any of the three universities officially supported the bill (but legislators from both parties claimed it was promoted by individuals connected to the outgoing UA administration).

The governor should veto the legislation, which, given the University of Arizona’s recent history, moves in exactly the wrong direction.

UA’s Faculty Senate provides needed oversight

The central provision of HB 2735 states: “A university president may not delegate the president’s authority to approve academic degrees or organizational units.”

At the University of Arizona, the Faculty Senate is the last step in the approval chain, before a proposed new academic degree or program goes to the Regents for final approval.

The University of Arizona has created scores of new degrees and programs in recent years, sometimes at considerable expense.

The Faculty Senate initiates none of these programs. They come from administration, either central administration or from the 20-odd individual colleges, such as Science, Humanities and Medicine.

This Senate has never, in recent memory, blocked any of the administration’s proposals.

The bill thus eliminates an authority that the Faculty Senate rarely, if ever, exercises. In 2023, for example, the UA administration proposed 28 new degrees and programs. The Senate approved 26 immediately; the remaining two were eventually approved.

The problem is that the bill also ends an important public mechanism for the oversight of a college administration that clearly needs oversight.

People with skin the game should review ideas

The board of a private corporation is accountable to shareholders who have a financial stake in the firm’s performance.

In Arizona, the politically appointed Regents have the challenging task of supervising three large and independently led entities, with no shareholders standing behind them to hold the Regents themselves accountable.

Republicans should recognize that bureaucrats spending billions of other people’s dollars — taxpayer and tuition dollars — need oversight. The UA Faculty Senate, through its public meetings and documents, provides one layer of useful oversight.

Last December, the Faculty Senate held a spirited discussion about, and publicly posted much information about, a proposed “Global MD” degree. After a $14 million startup cost, this program would send students to Australia for medical training, with a special emphasis on Indigenous medical practices.

Board of Regents: Did little to stop UA scandal

Faculty senators asked whether Arizona, and the students themselves, would get a reasonable return on investment. Following this discussion, the Senate approved the program on a split vote, but the Regents have (so far) declined to grant final approval.

In this and similar cases, Faculty Senate oversight is useful.

This bill undercuts UA. Hobbs should veto it

Neither the faculty nor the Legislature wants money wasted on projects that are poorly conceived or weakly managed, on a bloated and self-protecting administrative class, or on priorities that leave behind the Arizona students and families who provide most of the universities’ funding.

Other states recognize the useful role played by faculty governance. In the highly regarded university systems of North Carolina and Texas, for example, faculty governance plays a larger role than at the University of Arizona.

Finally, HB 2735 takes the remarkable step of prohibiting a university president from delegating any of his or her authority on program and degree approvals.

Effective management of any large organization requires sensible delegation of authority. The Legislature should respect a university president’s discretion to implement good and common management practice.

In HB 2735, the Republican majorities have approved a bill that undercuts their own priorities. Gov. Katie Hobbs can do them a favor by vetoing it.

Ethan Orr is a former Republican state lawmaker and teaches at the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences. Mark Stegeman is a faculty member of UA’s Eller College of Management and a UA faculty senator. Reach them at eorr@arizona.edu and stegeman@arizona.edu.

Source link

Click to comment

Arizona

Tetairoa McMillan a 2024 Biletnikoff Award semifinalist

Published

7 hours ago

November 19, 2024

Press Room

Tetairoa McMillan a 2024 Biletnikoff Award semifinalist

Arizona Wildcats junior Tetairoa McMillan on Tuesday was among 11 players named semifinalists for the 2024 Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to college football’s best pass-catcher.

McMillan is third in the nation with 1,136 receiving yards with Arizona (4-6) still set to visit the TCU Horned Frogs this Saturday and before hosting the rival Arizona State Sun Devils in the regular season finale.

His receiving yards total trails two other finalists: San Jose State receiver Nick Nash (1,282 yards) and Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin Jr. (1,170).

Also on the list is a player for the Wildcats’ upcoming opponent. TCU’s Jack Bech is sixth in the nation with 982 receiving yards so far this season.

McMillan began the year well-regarded and on the lengthy Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list, as well as the Maxwell Award watch list that will be handed out to the nation’s best all-around college player.

The bulk of his production in 2024 has come in two games: a 304-yard performance in the season opener against New Mexico on Aug. 31 and a 202-yard outing on Oct. 26 against West Virginia.

A likely first-round pick, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound receiver piled up 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Current Arizona Cardinals rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. won the Biletnikoff trophy last season for his 1,211 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior for Ohio State.

LSU’s Malik Nabers and Washington’s Rome Odunze, who like Harrison were first-round NFL Draft picks, were the other finalists in 2023.

A panel of 600 college football journalists, commentators, announcers, former award winners and former receivers vote for semifinalists, finalists and award winners.

A fan vote accounts for one official vote as well.

Tetairoa McMillan and 10 more 2024 Biletnikoff Award semifinalists

Jack Bech (WR), TCU
Ja’Corey Brooks (WR), Louisville
Harold Fannin Jr. (TE), Bowling Green
Tai Felton (WR), Maryland
Tre Harris (WR), Ole Miss
Travis Hunter (WR), Colorado
Tetairoa McMillan (WR), Arizona
Nick Nash (WR), San Jose State
Xavier Restrepo (WR), Miami
Jeremiah Smith (WR), Ohio State
Ryan Williams (WR), Alabama

Follow @kzimmermanaz

Source link

Arizona

How former Arizona Wildcats fared in Week 11 of NFL season

Published

15 hours ago

November 19, 2024

Press Room

How former Arizona Wildcats fared in Week 11 of NFL season

Another week of the NFL season is in the books. Here’s how former Arizona Wildcats fared around the league in Week 11.

Nick Folk, K, Tennessee Titans

Folk made a pair of field goals, including a long of 43 yards, in Tennessee’s 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Folk has 396 career field goals, one shy of 15th all-time.

Christian Roland-Wallace, ST, Kansas City Chiefs

Roland-Wallace played 13 snaps on special teams in Kansas City’s 30-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Roland-Wallace earned a 66.7 grade, second-best on the Chiefs special teams unit.

Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, ST, San Francisco 49ers

Flannigan-Fowles played 14 special teams snaps for San Francisco in its 20-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Flannigan-Fowles’ 63.6 grade on PFF was fourth-best on the 49ers special teams unit.

Jacob Cowing, WR/ST, San Francisco 49ers

Cowing played one offensive snap and two special teams snaps in San Francisco’s loss.

Jordan Morgan, OT, Green Bay Packers

Morgan was placed on the injured reserve on Saturday, meaning he’ll miss at least the next four weeks. Morgan reportedly reaggravated a shoulder injury during practice.

Source link

Arizona

Democratic Arizona governor says she'll work with Trump on border security if it won't harm families

Published

23 hours ago

November 18, 2024

Press Room

Democratic Arizona governor says she'll work with Trump on border security if it won't harm families

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday she is willing to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration on border security issues like stopping fentanyl trafficking, but not in areas that she said could harm Arizona families such as mass deportation.

Hobbs traveled to the Arizona-Mexico border on Monday to trumpet her state’s National Guard work helping crack down on smuggling of the deadly synthetic opioid into the U.S. through Nogales, Arizona. More than half of all border seizures of the drug are made in Nogales.

“Border security was a core issue of the Trump campaign,” Hobbs told reporters as vehicles moved behind her. “I look forward to having conversations with the incoming president about Arizona’s needs, including border security and the work we’ve done here to build these partnerships that are actually producing results and how we can continue those partnerships under his administration.”

But, she added, there are Arizona families who “are worried about threats from the Trump administration as well.”

“I will not tolerate actions that harm Arizonans, that harm our communities and quite honestly, divert resources from providing real security at our border,” Hobbs said.

Trump has promised to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, something that would upend the lives of the 11 million people living in the United States without authorization, many of whom have family members who are U.S. citizens.

“I will stand up to protect Arizonans from harm by the federal government, from anyone,” Hobbs said, but “I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals. We don’t know what a mass deportation plan will look like, what resources it will involve.”

Hobbs also touted Operation Secure, her initiative deploying the National Guard to assist local and federal enforcement in Arizona’s border communities like Nogales. The governor said 170 Arizona National Guard members are assigned to counterdrug efforts statewide, including 40 at the border in Nogales.

The governor’s border visit comes less than two weeks after Democrats suffered blistering losses at the polls in Arizona, with Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by a margin of about 185,000 votes statewide and beefing up the Republican majority in the Arizona Legislature.

Hobbs said Monday that border security is not a “Republican or Democratic issue” and she will work with “anyone” to keep the border safe.

Troy Miller, acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also spoke at the news conference and called National Guard members “a critical force multiplier” for his agency’s operations at the Nogales port.

“The scope of this problem is too large and the stakes are too high for us to do this work alone,” Miller said. “That’s why I’m so proud of the partnerships we have built, especially the ones right here in Arizona.”

Source link