ASU’s budget problems came up in a UA Faculty Senate meeting Monday, but the discussion appeared to include incorrect information about ASU’s plans to deal with the economic crisis.

UA Faculty Chair Wanda H. Howell said the Senate discussed proposals ASU President Michael Crow was said to have offered to the Arizona Board of Regents about program elimination and faculty layoffs.

ASU and ABOR officials said Crow has not, in fact, talked with regents about changing policies that restrict universities from laying off tenured faculty without declaring a financial emergency. But Howell said UA faculty were under the impression that Crow was seeking such a change.

“The only way you can really lay off tenured faculty is if you declare a state of financial emergency,” Howell said. “[Crow] is wondering if the regents would be willing to change that language.”

Howell said UA President Robert Shelton made it clear in the meeting that he would not support such a change.

Virgil Renzulli, vice president of public affairs at ASU, said there was no formal discussion of such a proposal, and nobody in the UA Faculty Senate would have been present to hear any discussion had it happened.

“Somebody has a fragment of information that was discussed weeks and weeks ago. That is just not happening,” Renzulli said. “No one has ever talked about reducing tenured faculty.”

ASU University Senate President Phil VanderMeer said the University has made no request to ABOR for a state of financial emergency and that a lengthy process would be required to do so.

“This is another one of those cases where it is vastly more complicated than it would seem,” he said.

He said Crow would have to submit the proposal for review to the senate before sending it to ABOR. The Senate would then have to evaluate the proposed cuts in faculty, consult everyone affected and consider all alternative steps to deal with the crisis, he said.

“Tenured faculty are the core of the institution. That’s literally the last thing to happen,” VanderMeer said.

ABOR Vice President Ernest Calderon said he knew ASU was considering a proposal, but it was taken off the table.

He said all parts of the University system are struggling financially, and UA personnel should look inward before making any speculation on ASU.

“I recommend that before the UA starts commenting about ASU that they look at their own affairs,” Calderon said. “I think if we all just focus on solving our own problems instead of commenting on our neighbors that more productive things will happen.”

Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.