Tough financial times for all state universities have led officials at the University of Arizona to recommend cutting 18 academic programs.
Those on the cutting board, ranging from the doctorate program in French to the entire School of Health Professions, signify the beginning of UA President Peter Likins' plan to constrict both the University's enrollment and number of programs.
The move is to cut out unproductive or unnecessary courses of study and redirect resources in order to strengthen other areas of the University, according to UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha.
"We need to do fewer things than we are doing now, and do them better," Kha said. "We need to refocus ourselves to be concerned with having fewer programs that are of higher quality."
The mergers, cuts and restructuring all stem from Likins' portion of the Changing Directions plan. Changing Directions is a future projection for the state's three universities sponsored by the Arizona Board of Regents. The intention of the plan is to allow universities the freedom to separate their goals and ideas from one another and build individual identities. All three state universities have separate plans to deal with the budget cuts.
Kha did not know how many people the changes would affect.
"Right now, everything is so vague," Kha said. "We are going to see what advice the faculty and staff offer to us in regards to that issue."
Faculty, staff and students have the opportunity to form committees to discuss the Likins' cut proposal, Kha said. She added that the committees would have 90 days to make a recommendation.
"There are no proposals for program cuts written yet," she said. "The faculty, staff and students still need to give their input on the ideas President Likins suggested."
If programs do get cut from UA, it is too soon to tell how many professors would be affected by the change, Kha said.
"We have a commitment to all tenured professors that they will have a home in the university," she said.
ASU executive vice president and provost Milton Glick said ASU does not have any specific plans to accommodate displaced UA professors. "But if a position were to open up, we would certainly give any professors consideration," he said.
After the committees meet and offer advice to university officials, UA hopes to bring a proposal to the Regents in June for its approval.
"In the last two weeks the University has discussed more major changes than it has in its entire history," Kha said.
ASU President Michael Crow has expressed that while UA is attempting to maintain its current enrollment size, ASU is looking to expand. Therefore, there is little chance that any ASU programs will get the ax.
However, ASU administrators do have plans to merge three department programs of the life science studies into one program, Glick said.
"We do not have an agenda to eliminate programs," he added. "But we are currently examining the state budget and will have some hard decisions to make in the future."
Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.
