Repercussions from proposed university budget cuts came home Thursday at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting when it took a painful step forward by ordering the closure of a relatively new college program.
Approximately 200 people showed up at UA to object to the closure of Arizona International College, now in operation for four years. The college, based at UA in Tucson, is the first casualty of the cuts requested by Gov. Jane Hull last summer.
ABOR spokesman Matt Ortega told the board that the state Legislature called into special session Nov. 13 had made little progress toward a tangible solution to balance a $1.6 billion projected budget shortfall.
"They have a lot of stuff on the table right now, but nothing that's going to affect us beyond the cuts we've already seen," Ortega said. "At this time I'm very hopeful that the Legislature will stick with the 4 percent originally asked for."
Ortega said the Legislature had a long way to go in solving the budget crisis and that things could change.
Last spring ASU President Lattie Coor called for major cuts in ASU's budget to satisfy a requested $13 million reduction. Those reductions include a hold on new hires, limiting teaching assistants and cutting back on student counselors.
Regent Jamie Molera told the board that the Legislature had gone overboard in fiscal year 2001 thinking the economy would continue to boom.
"Last year the Legislature passed a budget that was not realistic," Molera said. "Now we're at a point where the state is suffering."
Although money in the university system is tight, ABOR did vote unanimously to approve $3.5 million set aside to renovate the C-wing of the Physical Science building at ASU.
Another $326,000 was approved to expedite the Arizona Regents University, a cooperative Web-based program to connect all three university Web programs into a single accessible program.
Reach Victor Allen at victordallen@cs.com.
