Sally Gradstudent: Gradstudents for Change in Arizona

Finally, some justice

2010-09-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't been reading your e-mails from the provost (and really, who does but us?), after 10 years of fighting, the university has finally invested some funds into reducing TA workload in the College of Humanities!

Where should you send your thank you letter?
Dean Comrie of the Graduate College met with department heads and the administration of the university, designed a plan with real numbers and real benefits made explicit and pitched the plan himself. Thanks to him, hundreds of humanities TAs will get workload reductions this year, meaning they will be teaching 3 rather than 4 courses a year. This is much closer to the national average and is expected to greatly improve time-to-degree.

Check it out in the Star.

Where's my money?

2010-08-24T10:26:00.001-07:00

Want to know what the UA Rec center is spending your $60 health and wellness fee?
The AZ Star reports that the new entrance to the rec center will feature fingerprint scanners so that there will be no waiting in line to get into the rec. Wow. All that for the bargain price of $50,000? Lucky us.

p.s. The article mentions that the scanners don't work on about 20% of the population, so there will still need to be a staff member to scan their CAT cards.

Prop 100

2010-05-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today is the vote on the one-cent sales tax increase that would keep UA from being cut an additional $41 million and (according to Pres. Shelton) save about 500 jobs at the university.

If you don't vote today, don't complain later. If you don't vote in general, it is your fault when tuition and fees go up.

The road to hell is paved by U of A: This is your "asfault": Tarred and feathered: "Paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

2010-05-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

We couldn't help including all of the creative titles we could think of for this one.

The Star's Becky Pallack has blogged on this story and has some great before and after pictures of the neighborhood linked to the article.

When UA needs more parking, where do they turn? The historical neighborhood of Rincon Heights. After UA developed a habit of buying perfectly good houses in order to demolish them in the 90s, Rincon Heights worked with the university for 2 years to work out a compromise in which no more buy-and-pave deals should have taken place. UA seems to have broken with that commitment, however, and now plans to knock down even more houses, with no regard for the impact on the community and local environment.

Note the irony: UA touts its new "environmental" rec center, right next door to a big slab of asphalt, one that it plans to expand. Rincon Heights' neighborhood association has dedicated time and money to planting native trees and flowers and to harvest rain water. They even won a prize for it. Now UA wants to pave over their efforts, to make room for a few more cars (nice stance on the environment, UA.)

So far the UA has been unresponsive and highly reluctant to negotiate with the neighborhood association. (Interesting stance on collaboration and mutual respect, coming from an institution that supposedly fosters these values.)

The Rincon Heights residents ask you to pressure the UA administration to honor their agreement with the neighborhood:

Join the cause

"Please email this short message to President Shelton at robert.shelton@arizona.edu:

Don't asphalt Rincon Heights. Honor your agreements with the neighborhood.

If you are a student, please mention it. Many students live in Rincon Heights.

Please ask all your Facebook friends to do the same. We really need to spread the word.

Positions
1. The UA needs to honor its agreement that any activity in our neighborhood will "stabilize and improve the residential character of the neighborhood."
2. The UA should not change our long standing agreement without our consent.
3. The land left vacant by demolition must be restored in an attractive manner: no visual pollution like weed strewn vacant lots or asphalt parking lots"

Your neighborhood could be next.

Shelton takes a firmly ambiguous stand on SB1070

2010-05-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

In a memo sent to the campus community on April 29th, it began to look like UA's President Shelton was about to join the hoards of others opposing SB 1070- the new immigration law that would require the police to verify the immigration status of, well, anyone.

It looks like Shelton is about to denounce 1070, something over a thousand campus community members did at yesterday's protest: "On any given day there are literally hundreds of people here from around the globe. They come to our campus to learn, to collaborate in research projects, and to share the products of their own scholarship."

Sadly, the memo dissolves into political pandering.

Despite the fact that: "We have already begun to feel an impact from SB1070. The families of a number of out-of-state students (to date all of them honors students) have told us that they are changing their plans and will be sending their children to universities in other states," Shelton insists that UAPD will be extensively trained in how to enforce SB 1070 (as if they weren't busy enough with all the pot-smoking and loud partying that goes on around here.)

Although Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Tucson City Council, and countless others have publicly opposed the law, Shelton has not taken a stand. Do you think he should? Send him an e-mail: robert.shelton@arizona.edu

Could be worse.....Oh, wait. It is.

2010-03-31T11:40:00.001-07:00

Thanks to pressure from student groups such as ASUA and GPSC, fees increases were limited to approximately $310 for next year. GPSC is still working on getting some of that remitted for GATs and GRAs, but no firm deal has been released in writing yet.

The Regents have mandated that all three universities reduce their payroll expenses by 2.75% before the end of the fiscal year. ASU has proposed program consolidations and cuts, while UA has been pretty quiet on the matter. According to Becky Pallack of the AZ Star, the total amount is about $5 million. No one is sure what this will mean to UA GATs and GRAs. We've already taken an effective pay cut through increased fees!

President Shelton will be at GPSC tonight at 6pm in Law 168 if you want to ask him to explain his plan (whatever it may be). E-mail the assembly chair to reserve your spot to speak: jbj@email.arizona.edu.

GPSC elections are going on right now. If you don't vote, don't complain later. For all the bitching we do, we have an embarassingly low voter turn out. If you care about your salary, health care, remission, etc. then you should be able to take 30 seconds to click a few buttons and vote: www.gpsc.arizona.edu/elections. Click on your college.

Last-Minute Back-Tracking

2010-03-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

Pres. Shelton changed his tuition and fees proposal yesterday, on the eve of the tuition decision by ABOR (going on right now!). The long and short of it is that his tuition recommendations came down a little and he advocated for phasing in the fee increases over the next two years rather than all at once. This still leaves the almost $700 proposed fee increase to be implemented by 2012.

From our perspective, this means:
1) Shelton is responding to pressure from ASUA, GPSC and other student organizations.
2) Shelton is trying to make a quick compromise that benefits his plan right before the regents vote so that student leaders have little time to respond.
3) If he is willing to bring down the fee amounts, at least for one year, this supports the GPSC's assertion that the fee amounts proposed initially are inappropriate and poorly researched.

We'll know the results in a couple of hours, since ABOR is voting on these increases at 9:30am today.

Fee Vigil

2010-03-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

A last-minute vigil has been called to protest fees in front of the Admin. Building from 7-9 tonight. The organizers are asking participants to bring candles and to wear white tops to symbolize peace.

Elections

2010-03-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

ASUA elections are going on right now: www.asua.arizona.edu. Graduate and undergraduate students have the right to vote in the elections, and although most of the spots are uncontested, we do have one suggestion: Katherine Weingartner for VP. She has a lot of experience and is generally outspoken on the council, especially when ASUA is trying to waste money. Connor Mendenhall of the Mad Fee Party on Facebook has endorsed Jarrett Benkendorfer and Trevor Hill for senate, citing their support for referendums on fees rather than surveys.

GPSC elections are coming up and you have until the end of the week to submit candidacy forms for VP and representatives by college. If you don't run for office, at least make sure to vote.

Prop 100 is gaining facebook support. It would implement a one-cent sales tax, which would bring in support for education and other public program funding. Whatever you do, don't forget that joining a facebook group is not the same as actually showing up to the polls to vote.

GPSC

2010-03-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

As you have no-doubt heard, David Talenfeld has resigned from the GPSC presidency, citing his inability to advocate on behalf of his constituents because of his distinct view points. Expressing that he would rather leave than remain a "stubborn impediment" to change, he stepped down. And yet, Talenfeld was more than an impediment to GPSC; he was a competitor.

You may remember his letter to the Wildcat, which initially led many gradstudent organizations to question his willingness to represent his constituents. In that letter, he referenced everyone from JFK to Martin Luther King, Jr. in an effort to persuade readers to blindly accept the proposed tuition and fee hikes (exactly contrary to the GPSC statement he had been advocating for elsewhere).

Top that with his embarrassing and unexplained absence from the Arizona Board of Regents meeting and you have total disaster for the GPSC's image. For all of these reasons, it is no small miracle that David Lopez-Negrete was able and willing to step in and take over the lead. Now, more than ever, graduate and professional students need a leader that will not put administrator's opinions over the needs of the constituents.

The Rec Center
Assistant VP Frank Farias came to present the Rec's case to GPSC. Prefacing his statement with the perception that he wouldn't succeed in changing GPSC's mind on fees at all, he still tried to do just that. Unfortunately, the questions and answers went around in circles. Farias himself said that the Rec is in a financial reality and that someone has to pay for it. Having taken over only a few months ago, he admited that the 'books' are a disaster and that he's doing a full audit to find out where the waste has been all these years. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to justify the amount requested by the rec, even admitting that he wasn't sure whether it was too much or too little. When pressed to explain, he stated that they know they need money, but have no idea how much.

Should we just write a check to the rec center and instead of a number, write "more" for the amount? How can students be asked to pay for something when they don't even know how much money they need?

AZ Tuition Hikes Make National News!

2010-03-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

The ABOR meeting last night was standing room only, even in the extra over-flow room, where attendees could watch the proceedings on a video screen. Students voiced their outrage at the huge tuition and fee hikes. Unfortunately, only 8 of the 48 audience members signed up to speak actually were able to make it to the microphone. Forty-five minutes of the two-hour meeting were taken up with administrators and student representatives from the various campuses giving their statements, leaving little time for the public to comment.

Luckily, you can still contact the regents:
Arizona Board of Regents
2020 North Central Ave., Ste. 230
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: (602) 229-2500
E-mail peggy.martin@azregents.edu

One of the highlights was definitely Connor Mendenhall's statement (he is the administrator for the Mad Fee Party on Facebook:"Four years ago, when I entered the University of Arizona as a freshman, I paid $85 in mandatory fees. Should you approve President Shelton’s latest fee proposals, students like me will pay $873–a tenfold increase in just four years."

But our absolute favorite part of Connor's statement was: "No student in the state of Arizona should be denied access to public education because he cannot afford to pay for a gym membership, organic fruit in the student union, or plasma-screen televisions in the library."

Did we make it on the news? Oh, yeah.

The AZ Star's Becky Pallack's article emphasizes the outrage: "Students said they were "disappointed," "shocked" and "irate" at tuition and fee increases proposed for the three state universities."

The Wildcat's Article isn't half bad either. Check out the sign: "Fee Hikes are Pay Cuts for GATs and GRAs."

And now it has made the national news!!! Check out the New York Times article from the Associated Press: "Chris Campos, a philosophy sophomore at UA, said the proposed 31 percent increase is ''nothing short of criminal.'' "

Fox 11 news calls the tuition hikes: "whopping," "astronomical" and the "highest in history."

Apparently a lot more of it made it onto the 10 o'clock news, but we haven't been able to find the video yet. If you get a find it, please e-mail us the link! sallygradstudent@gmail.com

Tuition Hearing

2010-02-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Join the Mad Fee Party on Facebook! This group already has hundreds of members and was featured on KVOA 4.

SHOW UP AND BE HEARD AT ABOR ON MONDAY. Fight for the AZ constitution's guarantee of higher education that is "as nearly free as possible." Fight for your degree. Tell the administration you won't let them jack up the price without your say!

Monday, March 1st from 5-7 pm in the Harvill Building, Room 211
The Regents will be discussing tuition and fees. Show up early and get in line for the call to the audience! Tell them you can't afford to pay unreasonable fee and tuition hikes! Bring signs! (Some suggestions? No Taxation without Education. I can't afford this fee hike. Increased fees = GAT pay cut. Close the Rec before you cripple the UA. )

Check out AZ Star reporter Becky Pallack's breakdown of the numbers in her recent blog post. UA wants to raise tuition, but has a higher number of needy students than its peer institutions.

Check out this opinions article from the Wildcat on how UA compares to its "peer institutions." And take a look at how the Rec has become a money pit.

*Special thanks to the Mad Fee Party for the awesome graph on student fees!

Snowballed

2010-02-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Check out The Desert Lamp's Rec/Health fee breakdown and while you're at it, take their Campus Policy Survey.

Update: A Facebook group has been established to protest the Health/Rec Fee.

While GPSC and ASUA try to come to a consensus on fee recommendations, Shelton goes ahead and releases his plan: http://uanews.org/node/30192

If you can read between the "Yeah UA" lines, you'll basically see that in addition to increasing graduate and undergraduate tuition (again), Shelton would also have each of us paying $665 in additional fees next year (for some, an over 400% increase): "In addition to a new Campus Sustainability Fee of $24 and a Health and Recreation Fee of $306, Shelton has proposed an increase of $335 to the Library Information Fee."

The AZ Star reports that tuition and fees may rise about $2,000! Are we the only ones that are more than a little PISSED OFF? Can you afford to shell out about $500 each semester at the beginning of the semester before the university has even started paying you for teaching or research?

E-mail your GPSC Rep and tell them to fight harder for you. Find their e-mail addresses here: www.gpsc.arizona.edu

While you're at it, e-mail ABOR and tell them you can't afford this kind of tricky increase in fees: http://www.azregents.edu/1_the_regents/members/
Here are their e-mail addresses, so you can just cut and paste:
calderon@azlex.com, d.deconcini@att.net, fredduval@cox.net, jennifer.ginther@nau.edu, anne@mariucci.com, rbbulla@cox.net, mclendon@q.com,azregent@gmail.com, rmyers@c-path.org, lleonard@hopieducationfund.org

ABOR ultimately sets tuition and fees, so they are the ones you want to contact!

According to the AZ Star: "Hearings are scheduled for 5 p.m. March 1 at the UA Harvill Building. The Arizona Board of Regents will vote on the proposal on March 11 at the UA."

No time to write an e-mail? Here's one you can cut and paste.

Dear Arizona Board of Regents,
I am a graduate student at the university of Arizona and I am deeply concerned about the proposed increases in fees for the 2010-2011 school year. If passed in their entirety (a $665 increase), they would mean that graduate students would have to come up with approximately $500 each semester before the university has even begun to pay them their salaries for teaching and research. This would add to the already burdensome workload that graduate students carry. In order to remain competitive in research and educational standards, it is essential that these fees be eliminated or included in graduate assistant remissions. We risk losing our excellent graduate student teachers and researchers to universities that offer them a full remission if we do not take this step immediately. Key faculty members rely on graduate assistants, as do the undergraduates whose classes we teach. Please do not risk the future of our state's universities by failing to offer support for these important members of the system.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter,
Sallygradstudent

Fees!

2010-02-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

Fee Update! ASUA has voted against supporting the exorbitant Health/Rec fee (currently at a $306 increase), despite the evidence presented from the very poorly designed survey Student Services put out.

Here are the fee proposals as they stand right now.

Next year you could be looking at approximately (these are mostly still being proposed and discussed in both ASUA and GPSC, but they'll be going to Pres. Shelton soon):
Library: $150
AZ Rise ("Green" Fee): $50
PIRG (Advocacy group): $2
Tech: $300
Health/Rec: $306

Right now you probably pay about $144ish...oops, that's per semester. So $288 per year. (Of course, that depends on the program).

plus the other fees you usually have to pay...
Tuition surcharge: $414
Student Services: $40
Rec Bond: $25
ASA: $2
AFAT: $15
KAMP: $1

That's $498.

Of course, these are all approximations...we don't know what the final result will be until the fees are actually set and posted to your bursar's account.

Are you ticked off? Contact your GPSC rep. They can't represent you if you don't tell them what you think. GPSC will have a meeting dedicated entirely to fees on Feb 17th in Law 168 at 6pm. Open your mouth before you open your wallet.

Packing Heat

2010-02-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Two proposals are making their way through the Arizona State Legislature:

One would allow faculty members to carry concealed weapons on campus, overriding Arizona Board of Regents' weapons-free-zone policy at all three Universities. The other would eliminate the (already very minimal) requirements for carrying a concealed weapon! The AZ Star article emphasizes how alarmed Arizona police officers are at the possibility of legal concealed carry with no background check and no training. I'm sure we can all see where this is leading: soon it could be legal for any adult with no special training or regulation to carry a concealed weapon on campus.

If you have a problem with this, make sure to call the bills' sponsors: Senators Pearce R, Gorman, Gray C; Representatives Antenori, Barnes, Gowan, Montenegro: Senators Allen S, Harper, Verschoor; Representatives Burges, Crump, Kavanagh, Lesko, Murphy, Seel, Stevens. (Contact info for your legislators is always available in the left-hand column).

And don't forget to contact the governor's office.

Arizona Board of Regents, the UA Faculty Senate, the three university presidents, the three university chiefs of police, and the GPSC have issued statements against concealed carry on campus. ASUA has not. They are holding a special forum on Tuesday at 7pm in the Santa Rita room in the Student Union. If you have an opinion, go and have your voice heard, but keep in mind that it's ultimately the state government that makes the decision. Call them. Tell them you're registered to vote and you have an opinion.

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

2010-02-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

Where is everyone?

Last semester had us thinking the faculty had really stepped into the 21st century with the UA Defender Blog, which was developed by some anonymous members to protest the firing of UA's VP for Instructional Development Garcia (who was opposed to the so-called mega-classes). Now we see that the last post was October 2, 2009.

If you try to visit the awesome site developed by ASU student Haroon Saleem, Speak Up Now AZ.org, you'll get re-directed; it doesn't exist anymore. The facebook and twitter pages still exist, but haven't been actively used since last summer.

The Chalk is Speech website, developed by outraged faculty during the Evan Lisull and Jacob Miller chalking affair, also seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Even the occasionally overly-enthusiastic Arizona for Education group hasn't posted to their blog since October of 2009.

The only blog that seems to be as strong as ever is the Desert Lamp. We don't always agree with them, but we still consider them one of the best resources for independent news and informed opinions on this campus.

This begs the question: Is blogging-as-resistance still viable? If we blog when we're angry, but then get frustrated and give up, is that resistance, or shouting into the wind? Last year these blogs were so much of a threat that Pres. Shelton actually mentioned them in his letter to the AZ Star (see our previous post "Well, Shame on Us"). Now they seem all but dead in the water.

Where do we go from here?

Arizona's Economic Crisis

2010-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Arizona Public Media invites two economists to discuss Arizona's budget shortfall. Big surprise: in the days of plenty, the legislature initiated permanent tax cuts that a 2/3 majority requirement makes almost impossible to overturn. We have more outgo than income.

http://www.azpm.org/politics/

Penny Wise and Pound Stoopid

2010-01-27T16:59:00.000-08:00

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has suggested cutting adult education (among a ton of other things) in Arizona. This means adult literacy programs and funding for GEDs. In case you don't know, a GED is the degree you are able to get if you were unable to complete a traditional high school diploma for whatever reason (pregnancy, abuse, financial hardship, family problems, etc.)

According to the Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning, "18% of all high school diplomas issued in Arizona in 2008 were GED diplomas. There are currently 795,970 adults in Arizona without a high school credential, which makes it nearly impossible to get a job or go to further training."

They also stress that "individuals with a high school diploma earn on mean $8,000 more per year than those without a diploma. This translates into millions of dollars in revenue which goes immediately to Arizona ." The website also argues that GEDs are relatively cheap ($183 per student). When you think about it, a $183 investment for an $8,000/year return is pretty awesome.

One NPR interviewee said the cuts were "penny wise and pound foolish." There is a facebook group to support the continued funding of basic education in our state.

We want your money, and you want to give it to us!

2010-01-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Many of you probably got the recent student rec/health survey. Did anyone else find it a little biased? There was no room for comments and the questions seemed pretty loaded to us.

Considering that the library, Health and Rec, Information Technology (IT), something called PIRG, and a "Green Team" are all asking for new student fees next year (which could add up to over $150/semester by our calculations), it might be worth your time to take a look.

Here is a guest submission from a Sallygradstudent reader on the survey. Let's call him Joegradstudent:

*************************************************************************

Like many other students, I received an e-mail from Melissa Vito, Vice President for Student Affairs, asking me to take a survey about the proposed Health and Recreation Fee that we heard about last semester. I’ve attached a Microsoft Word document containing the e-mail and the survey.

The survey is disturbingly biased and seems to be deliberately designed to convince students to say they support the fee. If you’ve never been involved in designing a survey or writing appropriately neutral survey questions, you can look at any of the hundreds of books and websites that discuss how to insure the validity and accuracy of survey results. Here’s an example from a website that I chose randomly from Google search results, contrasting a bad leading question with a good neutral version:

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_survey.shtml

Bad Question: Leading	Good Question: Neutral
Do you think that the new cafeteria lunch menu offers a better variety of healthy foods than the old one? ( ) Yes ( ) No ( ) No Opinion	How do you feel about the new cafeteria lunch menu compared to the old one? ( ) The new menu offers a better variety of healthy foods ( ) The old menu offers a better variety of healthy foods ( ) The selections are similar ( ) No opinion

Applying a similar analysis to the first question from Melissa Vito’s survey:

The survey asks, “…indicate how supportive you are of … continued access to quality, low cost health care…” and your choices are:

( )Very supportive

( )Moderately supportive

( )Slightly supportive

( )Not supportive

( )No opinion

A more neutral version might look something like this:

1.“Do you support a fee to continue the current health care system” with choices:

( )Yes

( )No

( )No Opinion

2.“What is the quality of the current health care system?” with choices:

( )High

( )Medium

( )Low

( )No Opinion

3.“What is the cost of the current health care system?” with choices:

( )High

( )Medium

( )Low

( )No Opinion

Many of the questions in Melissa Vito's survey are just as biased and leading. Additionally, as you work your way through the survey, if you indicate that you don’t support the fee, you’re then taken to a section of the survey that is nothing less than a sales pitch that tries to change your mind.

In the past, I’ve always been surprised when the University has claimed that surveys indicate that students want to increase fees. If all of the “surveys” are like this one, I think I understand now.

This survey is significantly flawed and we should object to any attempt by the University to claim that the results of this survey are valid. We can probably also find a well-credentialed faculty member or two who would be willing to write an analysis of the survey. Finally, it would also be interesting to look at some of the other surveys the University has used in the past to support increasing fees and tuition.

Survey Student Fees

Don't forget to write to your GPSC or ASUA representative and tell them what you are and are not willing to pay for!

www.gpsc.arizona.edu

www.asua.arizona.edu

Guns on campus?

2010-01-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here's ABOR (Arizona Board of Regents)'s response to the propsed laws that would make it legal to carry a firearm on campus. FYI: as of very recently it is legal to have a locked concealed weapon in your car or motorcycle and park it on campus (!)

LTR Guns on Campus Withenclosures[1]

Have you considered writing a letter to Pres. Burns and Speaker Adams as well? You can find their contact info to the left. If you talk about guns on campus over coffee or around the water cooler, you should take a few minutes to have your opinion registered with the elected representatives of our state, too.

A letter from the Governor

2010-01-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

Good(ish) news for education, really bad news for everyone else. Don't panic until you've read the whole thing. It's only mostly sad.

From the Governor's e-mail:

"One of the rewards of being Governor over the past year has been the ability to
interact and witness the important work that gets accomplished by state
government employees on a daily basis. The citizens depend on the wide range of
services offered by our dedicated public servants.

As you are all aware, the State of Arizona faces an unprecedented budget crisis.
I have spent the last several weeks meeting with budget staff, agency directors
and advisers looking at all options to address the $5 billion deficit we face
over the next 18 months. We have explored numerous proposals on how best to
move our great State forward.

Today, I am releasing the results of those efforts. The Executive FY
2011 budget represents the largest reform and restructuring of government in the
state's ninety-eight year history.

It also includes painful decisions that will impact lives throughout our state.
Unfortunately, the impasse over revenue increases, my concerns about taking on
massive long-term debt and the continued effects of the recession on our
economy have left me few choices given my responsibility to produce an honest
balanced budget. I have attached a copy of the letter that summarizes some of
those difficult recommendations.

I am sure that some state employees' initial reactions may range from shock to
anger. Many of you have spent an entire career dedicated to serving the people,
through budgets good and bad.

Please know that I share in the frustration and disappointment that many of you
feel regarding the impact of the budget crisis on state government. These
recommendations are a reflection of the fiscal realities we face, not a
reflection of your service.

The purpose of this note, however, is not to defend my budget package but to
ensure you know the truth about our State's situation and stay involved in our
economic recovery. To that end,Be informed - go to my website at www.az.gov and
read my budget proposal.

Go to www.azleg.gov and read information about Legislative proposals.
Communicate with your agency leadership about your goals, concerns and
questions.

Remain committed to public service. While it may be tough right now and the
work may sometimes seem thankless, Arizona continues to need dedicated public
servants to protect and help the citizens of our state. Pray that the
governmental leadership of this state will make wise decisions regarding
Arizona. Whether you support me or not, I also humbly ask that you pray for me
that I may be able to effectively discharge the duties of my office.
Do not lose hope. When discouraged turn to faith, family and friends.

We will get through this. Our plight, while serious, still pales compared to so
many around this world. Despite our current difficulties, we should never
forget that we have been blessed enormously as a state and a Nation.

Thank you for your continued dedicated service. Ultimately, I believe Arizona
will arise from this crisis and become a stronger state. We must work together
to meet the challenges that face us and prepare Arizona for her second century.

May God bless you and may God bless the great State of Arizona.

Janice K. Brewer
Governor"
Budget Letter From Governor-FY2011

The price of your workout

2010-01-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

A lovely article in the Daily Star today discusses the U of A's successful new Rec Center, highlighting its 'green' initiatives. What the article fails to address is the fact that the Rec Center has appealed to Student Services, ASUA and GPSC to raise fees up to $160 because they grossly underestimated the cost of running their new facilities (and, of course, because of budget cuts). For the new price they're asking, most of us could join a private gym.

Even more disconcerting is the not-so-neutrally worded Student Services survey sent out last week, asking if you totally love, really love, love or only kinda love the new rec center. With no room for comments, and a biased multiple-choice selection, the survey should really just go ahead and ask, "The rec is great and we gotta fund it, okay?"

Unfortunately, it seems that someone has convinced the health center to team up with the rec in requesting new fees. The survey doesn't give any indication of how the eventual fees will be divided up and spent. In fact, it states that 2/3 of students use the rec center and 1/2 use the health center, implying that the rec center is a more essential service. Well, when people go to the rec center, they pump iron (which is good for you). When they go to the health center, they are seriously ill, looking for mental counseling, trying to prevent disease, getting needed medications....

And to save you the time, we won't go on a rant here about the endless waste in the new rec (like flat screen t.v.s everywhere, student workers that just stand around and hang out, brand new machines instead of working used ones, etc.)

Frankly, in a town where it's possible to go out for a jog almost every day of the year, it's hard for us to understand prioritizing the rec center at the same level as a crucial service like campus health.

I.O.U.

2010-01-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

NAU, U of A and ASU may have to issue IOUs , meaning late payments and paychecks and drastically cut class offerings. According to an inside source, several large departments are already slashing their course offerings to the bone and opening up far larger sections than usual. What does this mean for YOU, GAT? More students to teach and maybe not getting paid on time!

Provost Hay says in the AZ Star article (by Becky Pallack) that the UA could survive on cash reserves for a month. Well, most grad students couldn't survive even that long. Around here, "cash reserves" means loose change you find at the bottom of your backpack. Why don't we have the money we expected? The state has yet to pay the money it promised.

Write to your elected officials and tell them to pay up!

***

What makes a volatile situation better? GUNS!

Senator Harper of Surprise (as in "Surprise! I have a concealed weapon!) has proposed allowing staff and students to carry concealed weapons on campus. Great idea: pile on the workload, cut pay and benefits, maybe pay people a little late, cut course offerings....arm everyone.

See our previous post on why arming everyone might not be the bestest idea ever.

As Nearly Free as Possible

2010-01-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

Former ASU student Elizabeth Teager has produced a documentary on the issues of tuition in Arizona universities. It's very well edited and makes excellent points on the failure of the state to support its own citizens' education.

You can thank Becky Pallack from the AZ star for breaking the story.

As Nearly Free As Possible from Elizabeth Teager on Vimeo.

Want a chance to see the provost in action?

2009-12-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

Provost Meredith Hay will be at the GPSC meeting tonight (12/2) at 5pm (moved from 6:30 to accommodate her schedule) in Law 168.

It is open to the public, but the call to the audience will be limited to 5 people, 2 minutes each.

If you can't get there, or you don't make it onto the list to speak, contact your GPSC representative and ask him/her to present your concern for you later in the meeting!

We're back

2009-11-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

It's not that nothing has been going on, but some of us are also supposed to be working on our degrees, and sometimes fighting the good fight gets too time-consuming. Besides, the way this institution and this state are going, we shouldn't be surprised when people want to keep their heads down, finish their degrees and get the heck out before it really hits the fan.

Just to get us rolling again, here's some recent news:

The rec center wants even more money. They took a big state-budget cut and they do need to pay for their facilities maintenance, but we're having a hard time prioritizing this since we live in a city where it's pleasant to just go for a jog or lift weights in your own backyard during almost the whole school year.
"Huge Revamp of Higher Ed Envisioned". This is your basic article on synergizing with the community colleges and pumping out more degrees. Instead of tying state funding to enrollment, it would tie it to number of degrees granted. (Did someone say 'factory'?) We don't have to tell you how problematic this could become, especially considering the already-rampant grade inflation we have at the state schools. Now it could turn into pay your fee, get your degree.
California takes an outrageous tuition hike and Shelton suggests in the State of the University address that we might, too. The Wildcat encourages Shelton to be straight with us. UC students were so outraged by the exclusionary tuition hikes that they showed up en masse, stormed the administration building and got on the national news. The BIG question is: Will UA students just take the tuition hike we're almost guaranteed to take this year, or will they fight back?

Say What?

2009-09-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

The results of the faculty poll are out and approximately 60% of the faculty that voted indicated that it had little or no confidence " in the ability of central administration to lead us through the tough challenges we face now and in the foreseeable future."

Check out the Wildcat article here: "Seven of the 10 poll questions asked faculty for their opinions on the upper administration’s faculty support, transparency and handling of the UA transformation. In all seven such questions, results showed faculty favoring the answers denouncing Shelton and Hay."

UA Defender also has some statistics and commentary.

President Shelton has already written a response to the campus community (we won't even discuss that the link again ends in "press comm", leading us to believe that it's not for the university community at all): "While we have attempted to be as transparent in this process as possible, it is apparent that we need to do more, both in sharing details of the monumental budget dilemma that we face, and in engaging our faculty in the search for solutions."

Well, yeah. It's about time. Although, isn't this the same rhetoric we heard last year in just about every press communication the administration sent out?
Feel free to read them for yourself. Here are a few highlights:

June 27, 2008: "That process takes time and must be handled carefully with considered and timely input from faculty and staff, but it is a necessary component of the prioritization of our strategic objectives, which is what underpins our budget allocations."

Sept. 3, 2008: "Change is never easy. At a university as complex as the UA, real change cannot occur without input and support from a wide range of groups, primarily our faculty and our staff. With that in mind, Provost Hay has appointed several committees that will address a range of important issues, from how we can restructure ourselves across our colleges and departments, to how we offer our curriculum and reward excellence in teaching, to how we make the right decisions on strategic research investments, to the structural changes that would both save money and make us stronger academically."

Jan. 28, 2009: "While it may seem a bit cliché, it is nevertheless true that the faculty are the heart of our University. It is the strength of our faculty that establishes our reputation as a premier international institution. Our entire University community – students, staff, visitors, alumni, donors, and supporters across the state – collectively benefit from, and are inspired by, the work of our faculty. Regardless of the outcome of the budget deliberations, we are committed to maintain a world-class faculty and to strategically invest in those core areas of greatness that will propel the UA into the coming decades."

February 2, 2009: "We deeply appreciate the commitment, determination and resilience demonstrated by faculty and staff on a daily basis. This is a difficult time, but the faculty and staff of The University of Arizona have shown that by being creative and innovative, by working harder and smarter, we can continue to set a standard for universities around the world to emulate."

Is the new press release a lot like the other empty promises we've become accustomed to hearing?

In Free Speech and Intimidation News:

Despite Evan Lisull and Jacob Miller's arrests, students continued to chalk across campus today.

According to the Wildcat and the AZ Star, the charges against the two free-speechers may be dropped: "Shelton has suggested students be referred to the Dean of Students Office as a possible code of conduct violation."

*These photos are from Monday afternoon. We do not know who marked on the vertical surfaces.

Although it is a relief that the criminal charges may be dismissed, a referral to the Dean of Students is still punishment for something that was not a violation of the rules. Lisull and Miller only admitted to chalking on the ground. Our reading of the code of conduct (Part F: Prohibited conduct) couldn't locate any violation involving the reasonable expression of free speech by marking on the ground in a non-permanent way. In fact, we couldn't find any prohibition of writing on walls, either.

From the Chalking Back blog: "If reflected upon for moment, one can see the same insidious tactic is at play: students will continue to be targeted for speech act violations. This is not over, and I implore all colleagues not to let up on this issue; as it stands now, our students will no longer have the same right to speech as faculty. "

If you'd like to get involved in the cause, Arizona for Education will be holding a meeting Tuesday at 7:30pm at the Bookend Cafe.

(Another) Chalk Protester Arrested

2009-09-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

Another protester was arrested this morning while peacefully exercising his right to free speech: Evan Lisull of the Desert Lamp.

Evan Lisull was detained, cited, and released by the UAPD at the SE intersection of University and Park. The charge was criminal damage, and the arrest occurred at 644 AM today, Monday, Sept. 28.

So far from what we know, he was arrested for participating in today's reaction to the Jacob Miller arrest on Thursday. A group of students planned to write "Chalk is Speech" on ground surfaces (thereby abiding by the law as it is written) in an effort to exercise their right to free speech.

The Daily Wildcat has picked up the story. Read the details here: "Lisull said he wrote campus sidewalks, and not on any buildings or structures, “to address the issue of Mr. Miller’s charges.” “This is a very distinct civil liberties issue,” he said. “Regardless of how you think of the budget, you should be very concerned about this type of crackdown."

Also check out the Wildcat article on the backlash after the first arrest here.

Becky Pallack at the AZ Star is following today's arrest. Check out her online article here: “Chalk is speech,” Lisull said, noting his drawings are in reaction to the arrest Thursday of Jacob Miller, a 24-year-old graduate student, who was cited for criminal damage and interfering with an educational facility during a campus rally protesting cuts to public education."

Chalking Back: A blog to address the free speech issues of chalking and to provide an opportunity to express your disgust with the university's oppression of free speech has been launched by someone (or maybe several people) in the faculty:http://chalkisspeech.blogspot.com/

We have contacted Evan, but he is hesitant to comment on the incident any further, at least until he consults with an attorney. If convicted, he is facing six months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Anyone who was out this morning may have seen UA employees riding around in carts, washing off chalk remnants from the sidewalks.

If this is not systematic intimidation and suppression of free speech, we're not sure what is.

The Tower

2009-09-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

In case you've missed it, the UA community seems to be fighting back against "the tower," which is what some campus community members have become accustomed to calling the administration building.

In response to rampant rumors that the UA administration was planning to cut GAT/ RA benefits, the GPSC called a meeting with President Shelton, in which some very outspoken members of the gradstudent community grilled the president on lack of technology in the classroom, the failure to protect graduate students from increased workloads, the opacity of the administration's communications to the campus community (seriously, they're press releases), the consistent undervaluing of graduate student workers and the failure to recognize the importance of protecting graduate student rights.

The Arizona for Education blog and corresponding activism began, leading up to Jacob Miller's arrest for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. You can read Renee Schafer Horton's account on her Tucson Citizen blog.

The faculty senate conducted a poll, including questions that asked for faculty's level of confidence in the administration's ability to lead us through this economic crisis. The results will be out Monday or Tuesday morning and then we'll see where it goes. It seems that it's really ABOR's job to decide who should or should not be president or provost, but it would certainly be difficult for the Arizona Board of Regents to force someone on the faculty if they did, in fact, vote that they had no confidence in the person.

All of this unrest led up to Provost Hay and President Shelton writing a guest opinion for the AZ Daily Star. Just for fun, try doing a "Control F" search through the article. You won't find the words "education," "Student" (except in reference to GPSC and ASUA in the list at the bottom), "teach," "class" (except in the context of 'world-class'), or "learn." See also the Desert Lamp's response as well as our previous post in response to Shelton and Hay, called "Well, shame on us." Also check out Andy Seaton's mailbag article in the Wildcat. Seaton very bravely calls Shelton out on his lack of transparency.

For an excellent rundown of the whole budget story, see Becky Pallack's article in the Star.

Now this begs the question: Are you participating, or waiting on the sidelines to see who the victor is? Are you content to gripe around the water cooler and just be content to have a job while others lose theirs?

What can you do?

1) Write to your elected representatives in Phoenix and tell them you select your candidates based on their support of education funding. A list of helpful links is always up on Sallygradstudent (to the left).
2) Show up to protests and bring your outrage.
3) Organize in your department. Talk to other graduate students. Go to ASUA and GPSC meetings and demand strong representation.
4) Write letters to the editor of the Wildcat and the Star.
5) Give us and other bloggers and journalists a heads-up when something important is happening. You can also submit your thoughts any time by commenting on the blog or e-mailing us at sallygradstudent@gmail.com.

Jacob Miller's attorney is asking for your help. Please read her request here.

Read a letter of support for Jacob Miller drafted by concerned faculty members. Print it out, sign it and send it in to administration:
Robert N. Shelton, President
Administration Building, Room 712
1401 East University Boulevard
P.O. Box 210066
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0066
Or just cut and paste it and e-mail it in: robert.shelton@arizona.edu

Criminal?

2009-09-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

Jacob Miller's arrest is all over the news, turning a peaceful protest into a vortex of media attention. Tucson Citizen's Renee Schafer Horton is trying to get an interview with the UAPD, KGUN9 and KVOA4 both reported on it last night (with interviews from Jacob Miller), the Daily Wildcat filled up most of the front page with a photo from the story. The Desert Lamp has done a great job listing several other chalking incidents on campus.

Not only is the arrest of a peaceful protester disgusting, it also does not seem to us to follow the letter of the law.

Consider the definitions:
"A. A person commits interference with or disruption of an educational institution by doing any of the following:
1. Intentionally, knowingly or recklessly interfering with or disrupting the normal operations of an educational institution by either:
(a) Threatening to cause physical injury to any employee or student of an educational institution or any person on the property of an educational institution.
(b) Threatening to cause damage to any educational institution, the property of any educational institution or the property of any employee or student of an educational institution.
2. Intentionally or knowingly entering or remaining on the property of any educational institution for the purpose of interfering with the lawful use of the property or in any manner as to deny or interfere with the lawful use of the property by others.
3. Intentionally or knowingly refusing to obey a lawful order given pursuant to subsection C of this section.

A. A person commits criminal damage by recklessly:
1. Defacing or damaging property of another person; or
2. Tampering with property of another person so as substantially to impair its function or value; or
3. Tampering with the property of a utility.
4. Parking any vehicle in such a manner as to deprive livestock of access to the only reasonably available water.
5. Drawing or inscribing a message, slogan, sign or symbol that is made on any public or private building, structure or surface, except the ground, and that is made without permission of the owner."

Any short walk around campus will reveal numerous chalk drawings, usually made by the sororities. And yet, the police do not interfere with their right to free speech.

This is a serious matter. If Jacob Miller is convicted of these alledged "crimes", he stands to have a criminal record for the rest of his life, as well as fines and possible jail time. The university could then be in a position to suspend or expel him. His court date is October 14th, and if the charges haven't been dropped by then, we should take our peaceful protest to the courthouse.

Check out http://www.arizonaforeducation.com/ for more updates on the case.

Renee Schafer Horton of the TC online raises some important questions about the cost estimate for removing the chalk, and thanks to a quick-thinking graduate student with a camera, we have some answers for her. No power washing was done; the chalk was removed (as we watched) in less than 20 minutes by a group of 3 janitors.

According to UAPD, they may be looking for evidence of even more chalking so that they can hand out new citations. This is from Renee Schafer Horton's blog: Sgt. Juan Alvarez of UAPD said "There were other people that help Mr. Miller, but we couldn’t identify them. If we are able to identify them, we could pursue charges."

Is it just us, or does this come off as "Watch your backs, protesters"?

We will not be intimidated.

Double shame on us

2009-09-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

If you have a 3 year old niece who likes writing on the sidewalk with chalk, be sure to keep her away from the U of A.

Apparently, writing on the sidewalk with chalk during a legal and peaceful protest is a criminal offense...a double offense.

Jacob Miller, a Geography graduate student (his name was released elsewhere, or we would not be identifying him here) was cited for criminal damage and disturbing an educational institution shortly after the rally ended today. Miller told the arizonaforeducation group that the arresting officer indicated that "the order to arrest him came from higher up." The citation is particularly outrageous considering that the sidewalk chalk was promptly removed by a group of janitors right after the crowd disbursed, meaning that no permanent damage of any kind was made.

Is the administration trying to quash protests? This is highly disturbing, considering that the rally was targeted at the state of education in Arizona in general and was meant to show solidarity with the UC walkouts. Although the transformation process was criticized, this was certainly not the only focus of the group.

Well, whoever ordered the arrest just turned what looked to us like a pretty medium-sized, uneventful, peaceful gathering into a major hotbed. Just another example of how attempts to intimidate protesters will only result in drawing more attention to their cause.

Congratulations, whoever you are. You just turned this story into front page news. The AZ Daily Star has posted a web report already! Keep an eye out for the Daily Wildcat to report on the incident tomorrow. More details on the event can also be found at http://www.arizonaforeducation.com/

***Update: The protest and resulting arrest were covered on KGUN9 and KVOA4 news tonight.

From the KGUN9 report: "Steve Sherick, a criminal defense attorney in Tucson said, "It seems to me that the arrest and prosecution is pretty ridiculous." Sherick also believes the charges should be dropped, in violation of first amendment rights. "If you look at the cases under the first amendment, the public sidewalk is where people have the highest level of protection and free expression... let him draw his picture on the sidewalk. Let them have their demonstration, and as long as they're peaceful and not disruptive, forget about it. Let it go."

Sallygradstudent would also like to congratulate Jacob Miller on his very articulate interviews.

Well, Shame on Us

2009-09-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Pres. Shelton and Provost Hay published a guest opinion in the Daily Star today in defense of their cuts across campus. Could this be a pre-emptive response to the protest planned for today? Shelton and Hay outline their priorities for the transformation process:

***

• First, which units have the greatest capacity to generate new external revenue into the university above and beyond tuition dollars?
• Second, which units have the greatest outreach and impact on the citizens of our state? Our mission to serve the entire state and support its citizens is of the utmost importance during the financial crisis.
• And third, which units will most likely have a positive economic impact on the state, with an emphasis on job creation and growth?

***

It's pretty insulting that there is no mention of students in the entire list; no mention of teaching at all, as a matter of fact! The word EDUCATION does not even appear in the list. It reads more like a business growth plan than a mission statement for improving a university.

While that is unfortunate, even more upsetting is the dig Shelton and Hay take at "the dark corners of anonymous blogs". Well, shame on us.

If you've followed Sallygradstudent since the beginning (about a year ago), you know the reason the blog was founded. You know why we're anonymous. But just in case you forgot, here's a reminder.

From one of our first posts: "Due to the recent changes being made to the University of Arizona budget and the threatening language used by those in administration, we feel that it is time to stand up for ourselves. At the same time, the administration has admonished us, send intimidating e-mails and discouraged us from having our voices heard; this is why we must stay anonymous."

In response to graduate student efforts to distribute information about the transformation process, the administration reacted with intimidation.

Now ask yourself why we're anonymous.

For an overview of the transformation process and some words on today's rally, check out Becky Pallack's article in the Daily Star.

You can also read the UA Defender's response to Shelton and Hay's column for more of a faculty perspective.

Renee Schafer Horton's thorough reporting on the faculty poll is also very thorough and full of the details you've been looking for.

See you at 12:15 on the Mall.

Thursday's Rally: More details

2009-09-22T18:14:00.001-07:00

Campus organizers in a variety of departments have come together to organize this rally for Thursday. Big numbers will show that the graduate and undergraduate student body is worth listening to. Small numbers might imply the opposite. Show up and be counted.

This comes from the organizers' website:

*** Arizona for Education Rally, Thursday 24th, 12.15pm, UA Mall ***

Arizona for Education is a worker-centered, collaborative initiative built of graduate assistants, student workers, faculty and staff - from many parts of Uof A. We would like to invite you to participate, whether as a committee member, asource of information (confidential or not), or as a participant in our rally this Thursday. Arizona for Education is united around building common cause, voicing concerns, getting the word out, and responding.

* Common cause: We are strengthening our ties and contacts across theUniversity. Everyone is affected when cuts affect vital areas.

* Voicing concerns: Many voices, especially those of vulnerable staff and TA's whose departments don't support organizing, are being silenced. We wish to make these voices heard without fear. Please let us know if you have a story that you want us to tell for you.

* Getting the word out: Our education, PR and demonstration committees are working hard to make sure the desk of the President is no longer the only source of information around here. We are publicizing here on campus via teach-ins, rallies and email campaigns. We are publicizing off-campus to Arizona media and on the Internet, and seek to target particular legislativedistricts for publicity in the future. Your participation is most welcome.

* Responding: We cannot prevent all cuts, but we can, if we unite, address ourresponse to their source in legislative districts. We can further address the devastating effects of the present administrative methods of instituting cuts.When cuts are mismanaged, we respond. When the full reality is distorted or simplified, we respond. When eliminated jobs, hemorrhaged faculty positions, disingenuous fees, disappearing funding sources and unfair workloads are swept under the carpet, we air them. We are content to be divided and voiceless no longer. Our first major responseis this Thursday, the 24th, at 12:15pm on the Mall.

Please attend. If you can't, please ask us how we can help address your concerns. We are also encouraging a teach-in this week and have attached a power point to help faculty and GTAs inform their classes about the budget cuts and what we can all do to speak out against them(http://arizonaforeducation.com/2009/09/ppt-for-undergrad-education/) http://www.arizonaforeducation.com/

There are also a couple of facebook groups you can join to show support.

GPSC meeting with Shelton

2009-09-21T14:47:00.001-07:00

Better late than never: there will be a graduate student forum with Shelton today at 4pm in the Regents' room in the Admin building. Bring your outrage.

Poll of No Confidence?

2009-09-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

A faculty poll sent out on Friday afternoon may be attempting to take a vote of no confidence.

An anonymous comment to the theUA Defender blog said: "If you have looked at the online poll, one question specifically asks if you have confidence in the current administration's ability to lead this university forward. Vote No Confidence."

Other comments draw the process into question, asking whether the poll actually has any official power, how much of a percentage has to vote for no confidence in order to pass it, etc. At this time, it looks like the Faculty Senate is just putting out the feelers to see what the atmosphere really is. A few vocal members can always seem to be leading a charge that, in fact, has little backing. This way each individual gets one and only one response to the question.

The faculty can also go the route of providing a list of priorities or requests to the administration, such as they have on the site, i.e. no firings while the transition takes place (to avoid vengeful dismissals). From what we can tell, the Senate has not yet done this, at least in an official capacity. As powerful as blogs are, the administration can't be expected to respond to questions that have never been submitted directly to them.

Renee Schafer Horton of the Tucson Citizen online wonders whether the central issue is really Provost Hay's personality and attitude toward the cuts she makes.

A lack of empathy on Hay's part is disappointing (keep in mind that as far as we know, no upper-administrator has taken any kind of pay cut in all this time). At the same time, we probably wouldn't care much about her personality if she weren't firing so many people. We know times are tough, but firing someone you can't afford to pay and firing someone who disagrees with your way of doing things are certainly not the same thing.

The Wildcat reports on the Solidarity meeting that took place at Old Main on Friday.

Organizers have complained that the Wildcat's coverage was selective, choosing to focus on graduate students, when a variety of students, faculty and other university community members were present. Also, the Wildcat continues to spread the impression that graduate students are planning to walk out next week, when in fact, they are not (at least according to GPSC and the organizers of Friday's event.) If anyone has more info or would like a forum to post their statements, Sallygradstudent is always happy to oblige. You can put your name on it or post anonymously: sallygradstudent@gmail.com

Underfunded, Underpaid, Underground.

What next?

2009-09-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Domestic partner benefits are cut by the State Legislature: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/309409 The 'savings' from cutting out people's family members from coverage will not even be a drop in the bucket: "It costs the state $3 million to cover domestic partners and $625 million for other employees and their dependents, Ecker said. "

Just another reason for excellent researchers to flee to other states that are less discriminatory.

Someone (we can't figure out who is the organizer) is calling for a solidarity gathering at Old Main at 2pm on Friday the 18th. See the complete info in the prior post.

A discussion on possible recourse in the face of imminent cuts to graduate salaries and benefits is sensationalized by the Wildcat, which claims that graduate students are organizing a walk-out or strike, although neither is likely in the short term, and contrary to what the Wildcat says, was not supported by the council: http://wildcat.arizona.edu/news/grads-may-stage-walkout-to-protest-cuts-1.477661

Solidarity Meeting

2009-09-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

This was forwarded to us from a graduate student at U of A. We don't have time to edit it, so please ignore the question marks that always end up in the middle of e-mails for some reason or another:

"At the University of Arizona we are facing the most dramatic budget cuts andrestructuring in a generation. These cuts will affect everyaspect of the University system ? from the quality of education available tostudents, to the conditions of our labor as researchers, teachers, administrators and staff.

The administration is pursuing a strategy designed to weaken our capacity forcollective action, our ability to protect our interests and participate in thebudget and restructuring process.
In some departments, Graduate Teaching Assistants, already working for povertywages, have seen their salaries slashed. In others, course loads have beenexpanded overnight, with little explanation and no accountability. Facultyhave been furloughed in a way that minimizes disruption to teaching, andmaximizes the possibility that they will continue working without pay. Hiringfreezes and layoffs are undermining the integrity and functioning ofdepartments and spreading work around to already over-burdened faculty andstaff. And the decisions about whose budget is cut, by how much and why havebeen anything but transparent and accountable, let alone "participatory". All of this while new fees and "tuition surcharges" reduce access to andaffordability of higher education, redistributing the burden of budgetshortfalls onto the backs of students.

The UA budget has been cut as much as possible under the current stimulus?package. If it is cut any more, we will lose our stimulus funding. The 2011state budget will not include any stimulus money, and state? revenues arealready coming in under projection. We will have no protection from furtherdramatic cuts after this fiscal year.

By subjecting the budgetary restructuring to an arbitrary and subjective processwhose impact is felt differentially, we remain divided and pitted against eachother, rather than capable of uniting around our common interests. As long aswe remain separated in our individual colleges and departments we will have nopower or voice as our colleagues lose their jobs, as the conditions of ourlabor and the quality of our institution deteriorates, and as the legislatureand administration continue to pull the rug out from under our feet.

For these reasons, we invite graduate assistants, faculty and staff to a meetingon Friday September 18 at 2pm on the fountain in front of Old Main organize anaction in solidarity with the faculty, staff and students of the UC system."

It's been a busy week

2009-09-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Daily Wildcat announced that a faculty-run blog (UA Defender) is speaking out against the transformation process,
Pres. Shelton sent out a memo a few days later that could be interpreted as some kind of response to the criticism in said blog,
the state budget finally got at least partially figured out (meaning that UA employees will not have to be furloughed this year),
ASUA and GPSC began the process of 'bridgefication,'
ASUA finally voted to put their budget online (here's hoping they'll do the same with their meeting minutes),
and Regents Professor Oscar Martinez wrote in the AZ Star that 'poor leadership and funding are bringing down the UA.'

Sallygradstudent has now talked to several undergraduates that are taking the Mega-classes, many of whom did not feel that they had a choice since they were the only classes with open seats. The general consensus is that awesome as the teachers may be, Mega-classes suck. Please feel free to view our previous posting from this summer on the specifics of why they suck. Evan Lisull of the Desert Lamp defends the move to put more classes online, but we still have our doubts, and it's not because we're squares and don't want to deal with technology. While you can have a good experience in an online class, we think they're certainly not for everyone, or for every subject. The risks also abound. Consider the discovery that local magnet school K12 was found to be outsourcing its grading to India. One thing is certain: if more online courses are offered, they should be by the design of educators, not administrators.

While Pres. Shelton's memo from Sept. 9 seems like a partial response to the concerns of the UA Defender blog (although, of course, he doesn't make any reference to the blog in the memo), it again fails to address real issues raised by concerned faculty. As Prof. Martinez stated in the AZ Star, Shelton again positions Sciences and Humanities (and SBS and whatever falls into that category) as somehow opposed to each other. Shelton claims that COS (Sciences) has sustained heavy losses of faculty in the last year. Martinez refutes this with the number of faculty lost in the Humanities. It all comes down to a major difference in perspective: Shelton and Hay seem to value science more than other fields. It has to be protected because it brings in research dollars (but don't ask Shelton how much it costs the university to maintain those grants because we actually lose money on a lot of them.)

So it comes down to this: Yeah, classes like Agricultural Sciences teach students skills and do research that benefit the state as a whole...and English teaches them to read and write analytically so that they can actually be of use in the workplace! It's time to stop considering science and engineering as the only valuable colleges on this campus and start insisting that our "World-class" university actually include the world we live in.

Also, Sallygradstudent has decided that the only way for the transformation process to gain any credibility in our eyes is for the upper administration to take a voluntary pay cut. Sometimes the tough choices have to be made in one's own glass house.

Special thanks to the Desert Lamp blog for giving a shout-out to Sallygradstudent: "PS: Readers interested in the UA Defender should also check out Sally Gradstudent, who has done similar work for almost a year now from a graduate student’s perspective." We may not always agree with the Lamp, but that's half the fun of blogging, and if they weren't out there it would be a lot harder to keep track of the ASUA. And also thanks to the UA Defender for calling Sally Gradstudent "ferocious."

Let the Circus Begin

2009-09-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Desert Lamp criticizes the Daily Wildcat's reporting on the UA Defender blog, claiming that it is just a printing of the rumor and innuendo on the blog itself:
www.desertlamp.com

While this is partially true, the Wildcat article is not intended to support the blog, and if few sources are cited, it may be for the same reasons Renee Schaffer Horton lists on her blog: people are not willing to be quoted criticizing the administration.

Meanwhile, someone claiming to be Sallygradstudent has been posting comments to the UA Defender blog. While we support your right to post your opinions anonymously, we do not support your using our blog's name to lend you credibility. When actual Sallygradstudent authors post on UA Defender, the blogger emblem appears next to the name in orange. And, as always, feel free to e-mail us anything at all: sallygradstudent@gmail.com

Back in Business

2009-09-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

A sleepy summer couldn't kill off common sense or the outrage felt by some who have been subjected to the "transformation" process. For those of us still nervous about the AZ legislature's possible cuts (they are still trying to get their act together), the added perceived threat that any dissent could be punished by our own administration has maintained the culture of fear addressed last year in the Wildcat.

Following in the footsteps of Sallygradstudent (for, although we did not invent blogging, we did take this fight underground), UA professors have taken up the online fight. Apparently even tenure can't protect you from the steam-rolling that they allege has become common practice.

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/news/faculty-written-blog-calls-for-vote-of-no-confidence-in-president-shelton-provost-hay-1.350109#5

After criticizing the provost's decision-making on the 1,200 mega class, VP for Instruction, Juan Garcia, was demoted. He was the only professor to go on record about the blog and Sallygradstudent congratulates him on his bravery. Someone has to lead the charge! Now we will have to wait and watch if the administration attempts any censure. If so, it will be clear that the "culture of fear" is alive and well.

Read the blog here: http://uadefender.blogspot.com/

Even Tucson Citizen Blog reporter Renee Schaffer Horton has picked up the story: http://tucsoncitizen.com/godblogging/2009/09/02/university-of-arizona-revolt-covert-blog-started/

UA Defender allows anonymous postings, and so do we. To post on Sallygradstudent, you can open a random gmail account without using your real name and send it to sallygradstudent@gmail.com. We will never reveal any personal information. We will not be intimidated.

Daily Wildcat Rips Up ASUA

2009-08-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Just another reason why Shain Bergan is one of our favorite writers:
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/news/concert-losses-lead-to-drastic-cuts-1.307071

Budget Backdoor

2009-07-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Arizona State Legislature has managed to pass a budget, albeit not the one anyone in academia would like to see. Missing their midnight deadline by three hours, Republican lawmakers managed to bully through a budget that drastically cut money for public services. Gov. Brewer's proposed state-wide vote on a small tax increase to pay for basic services was cast aside.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/299275.php

The attitude of certain elected officials is extremely disappointing:
"Meanwhile, Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, said he was pleased with the outcome of the budget. He said Brewer has “no grounds to veto it.”
“If she vetos it, it’s only because she’s in a huff because she didn’t get her sales tax increase,” Melvin said."

You can bet your ass (pardon my language, but I'm ticked off) that Sen. Melvin would never have referred to a male lawmaker as 'in a huff'.

Check out this AZ Star cartoon:

(http://www.azstarnet.com/)

Keep in mind that several back-door policies are being flung around the legislature, tacked on to other bills or hiding behind misleading titles: concealed weapons on campus, for example.

Are you sufficiently indignant? Have you written a very angry e-mail to your lawmakers lately?

See the column to the left for contact information. Remind your representatives that you are ticked off and that you vote for people who really care about the future of Arizona.

Cattle-call classes

2009-06-30T09:32:00.001-07:00

The Daily Wildcat Summer Edition recently released an opinion (that actually doesn't offer much opinion for or against the proposal) stating that large classes have the potential to give students more access to the really 'good' instructors and allow students into popular classes that usually fill up quick.

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/06/24/Opinions/Potential.Pitfalls.Of.super.Courses-3748950.shtml

Now that Centennial Hall has been designated a classroom (holding up to 1,200 students) and U of A is going the way of so many other schools, Sallygradstudent would like to offer a little insight: Large classes suck.

That's right, Sallygradstudent used to go to another school, where she took Psychology 101 in a classroom/theater with 1,000 students...and math, natural science, two culture classes and a social science course. She also had philosophy and one literature class with 250 students, and it sucked. Why do larger classes suck?

1) Almost zero access to your instructor/professor. No matter how out-going you are (Sally gradstudent is pretty out-going), your instructor does not have time for you. If you do gain access, you will be promptly forgotten.

2) You can't ask a question when it's pertinent like you can in a small classroom, so you write it down, bring it to your GAT and try to explain when and how you had the question so s/he can answer it two days later, totally out of context.

3) It makes the classroom into a zoo. There is very little control of classroom behavior, so the idiot talking on his cell phone or the couple making out right next to you goes totally unchecked. It's like paying to watch a movie and having everyone talk through the whole thing, and then there's the catch: you're going to be tested on the movie afterwards.

4) It's even more like watching a movie than anything else. In Sally's experience, there were lots of fancy cameras and screens and powerpoints and videos. While the technology sometimes improved understanding, it often hampered it. Instead of just teaching, the professors often spent up to ten minutes loading their presentations, dealing with technical problems and fixing their microphones. If the technology failed, there was no solution: class dismissed.

5) If you, as a student, have a major problem, such as a mistake in your grade, a family emergency, a special need for adaptation, you are less likely to get the help you really need.

6) In terms of learning, you can't be expected to put out as much work as in other classes and you can't be graded as thoroughly and with as much feedback. If you're just in it for the piece of paper (diploma) at the end, you might not mind. On the other hand, you might want to learn or develop a skill or genuinely be interested in the class material. Your GATs and professors simply can't grade everything they would like to, so they design things that are easy to grade, not things that help you learn. Multiple choice, fill in the blank and true false questions are the worst ways to test knowledge, but the easiest to grade. If you're not a a good test-taker (brilliant as you may be) you're pretty screwed with the new system.

Keep these problems in mind when you sign up for a cattle-call class, and if you don't want to be in that kind of class, call the provost's office and let her know how you and your parents feel about the new U of A.

Budget

2009-06-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Throw another fiasco on the pile: in an effort to keep Gov. Brewer from vetoing a budget proposed by Republican lawmakers, the budget writers have been holding on to it, hoping to turn it in at the last minute in order to make Brewer look like the one at fault for not having a budget passed.

Check out this commentary in the Tucson Citizen Blog on how lawmakers are "playing chicken" while state services crumble before them:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/mark-evans/archives/32

Famous for failure?

2009-06-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

When I was a little kid and I did something stupid in order to get people to like me, my mom would say, "There are two kinds of attention: positive attention, and negative attention."

U of A administration, you should take a page out of my mom's book.

The AZ Star announced today that the U of A will now be holding some of the largest classes in the nation (up to 1,200 students at a time) in a year with record high tuition for this institution. Well, who is surprised, considering that we're among the very bottom of the pile for university spending and absolute last (that's 51 in the nation, including Washington D.C.) in K-12. Instead of investing in education, UA will dump $300,000 into retrofiting their theater with projectors and wi-fi.

Ever wonder why your students can't complete a simple sentence in writing? Do you ask yourself why so many undergraduates enter the university without the basic math and science skills they need? Now they're even more likely to leave the university, still without the basic skills they need.

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/295823.php

U of A is on the road to becoming famous for failure when it comes to undergraduate education.

School's out for summer?

2009-05-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

With the distractions of the Swine Flu and ASUA $1 million concert disaster, as well as finals week and the mass exodus that follows, it would be easy to forget what is still on the table. Despite all the backroom and closed door meetings certain members of the AZ legislature have held, they still have not arrived at a consensus on the budget.

Fortunately, some TUSD employees - who had previously been given pre-pink slips in anticipation of budget shortfalls- are now going to be allowed to keep their jobs: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/292005.php

Although there was some collective relief at Gov. Brewer's indication that she planned to accept stimulus money (a condition of which is maintaining current funding levels for higher ed), it seems like certain legislators are strongly resisting one part of her 5 part economic plan: tax increases. Meanwhile, plans are being made to 'sweep' university funds back to the state government: http://www.externalrelations.arizona.edu/government_state_update.cfm

Once finals are over, take a moment to register yourself to vote in AZ if you haven't already done it. Then write a letter to your elected officials and demand that they represent your interests. Don't let the lazy days of summer turn into complacency.

Nationally Infamous

2009-05-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone from the Desert Lamp to Perez Hilton is blogging on this one:
http://perezhilton.com/2009-05-06-jay-z-bombs-big-time-in-arizona

The Desert Lamp's take on the letter from administrators in support of Tommy Bruce in Wednesday's Wildcat:
http://desertlamp.com/2009/05/06/unpacking-the-cult-of-the-presidency/
http://desertlamp.com/2009/05/04/students-to-asua-wtf-wheres-the-funding/
http://desertlamp.com/2009/05/04/asua-as-chili-palmer/

ASUA called a meeting last night (with very little notice) and alledgedly didn't even bring up the concert during the whole meeting. Not talking about it won't make it go away, people!

This is not going to blow over

2009-05-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Did we go through all this to let ASUA's bad decision ruin our reputation? No!

Summer may be rolling in, but we can't let the heat erase the memory of what a fiasco has been committed by the ASUA. The $900,000+ loss is all over the news:

The Tucson Citizen reports that the ASUA vows more concerts will be held, despite this colossal failure:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/115859.php

The Wildcat examines the result of this disaster on Tommy Bruce's legacy:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/05/06/News/Outgoing.Pres.Feels.Heat-3737237.shtml

A letter to the Wildcat in support of Bruce, and signed by President Shelton and various other campus leaders, actually gets its facts wrong:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/05/06/Opinions/Mailbag-3737254.shtml

"President Bruce singlehandedly fundraised money to organize and rally over 2,500 students at the state Capitol in protest of devastating budget cuts. "

In fact, the GPSC provided half of the bus funding and was not even afforded the courtesy of being allowed to speak at the rally, nor were they given any credit by ASUA.

And the Wildcat calls it like it is, describing the concert venture as vainglorious and arrogant:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/05/06/Opinions/Editorial.Asua.Vainglorious.Venture.The.Result.Of.Arrogance-3737249.shtml

Do you have something to say? You can anonymously e-mail Sally at sallygradstudent@gmail.com . We never reveal the names of our commentators.

$1.4 million disaster

2009-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Offensively known as the "Last Bash Platinum Smash", the ASUA's going away party has lost more money than any other student government endeavour at the U of A, as far as we know.

By now you may have read the AZ Star and Daily Wildcat articles on the $1.4 million concert that only brought in about $500,000:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/05/05/News/Concert.Loses.Almost.1.Million-3736602.shtml

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/291508.php

Here are the highlights:

"All told, ASUA sold 6,100 tickets to the Bash and gave away about 4,400 tickets as part of marketing deals with local radio stations and newspapers [...] Roughly 1,000 tickets were given away to students who demonstrated the ability to sing a Kelly Clarkson song, or passed other tests administered on the UA Mall on the day of the show" (Daily Star).

"Nobody predicted the economy would be the way it is now last May," Bruce said. "The economy was getting worse, but we had already committed to doing a show" (Wildcat).

Keep in mind that the fee for Jay-Z was $750,000, and that this does not include the ammenities requested in his contract. Although Tommy Bruce blames the "economy" for the problem, the contract with Jay-Z was signed in March, long after the budget crisis was in full swing. Excuses, excuses. Bruce poses that this was all a learning experience. We here at Sallygradstudent learned that you can request to be exempted from ASA fees by applying at the ASA office in the Student Union so you can prevent more of your money from going to these schemes.

How is the university supposed to convince the state government that we need funding when our elected representatives to ASUA blow almost a million dollars in one night? This is a PR nightmare and while Tommy Bruce and many other ASUA members will be graduating and leaving next week, the rest of us are left to pick up the tab.

Some have suggested that the ASUA members be required to pay the money back before leaving, just like you can't graduate if you haven't paid your library fees. Others think that the advisors of the group (real grown-ups) should be held accountable for allowing such financially risky behavior in an economic crisis. Think someone should be called out to answer for this? Contact Pres. Shelton: robert.shelton@arizona.edu or better yet, call the ASUA office and give them a piece of your mind: PH: (520) 621-ASUA (2782), or an e-mail will do: asua@web.asua.arizona.edu.

When you're done with that, join this facebook group:

Boycott ASUA -- $1 Million Lost

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=80160991066&ref=ts

(the picture on the right is from the facebook cite)

Why you won't see Sally at the Jay-Z concert

2009-04-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

While Tommy Bruce and the rest of the ASUA throw themselves a $1 million going-away party, Sallygradstudent will be at home, studying, which is what she came to graduate school to do. If you haven't already read Heather Price-Wright's criticism of the timing and context of ASUA's concert, check it out here:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/20/Opinions/Concert.Coach.Hard.To.Reconcile.In.Uas.Dire.Times-3717163.shtml

Since Price-Wright's article was published on April 20th, she had no way of knowing how few tickets were actually sold as of this morningWe'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if the ASUA's lofty expectations of actually making money on this deal will come true, but as of this morning, it wasn't looking like the project would even break even: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/290738.php

Just for your reference: the $750,000 that is being paid to Jay-Z (one of the concert performers) could have paid the projected $1,100 tuition surcharge for 681 undergraduate students. Alternatively, it could have paid into a fund to assist struggling students to pay their tuition and fees in these tough economic times. It is just shocking how much ASUA gets away with. Check out this article about alledged elections fraud in the ASUA:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/24/Opinions/Editorial.Asua.Undermined.Its.Own.Legitimacy-3680447.shtml

In other news, the ABOR will be meeting tomorrow and Friday to determine if proposed cuts will be finalized, to possibly approve tuitions increases and to solidify restructuring plans. The details on the meetings appear in the article. Several programs are up for elimination and several "administrative" positions, too.

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/290723.php

The question is whether eliminating certain positions such as adjuncts and secretaries will really save money in the end. Adjuncts are relatively cheap labor and can sometimes put more time into teaching than other professors are able to do. Secretaries who really know what they are doing save time and energy for everyone: (ever had a message lost by a student worker?). Sometimes what looks cost-efficient is actually going to cost money in the long run.

A World Gone Mad

2009-04-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Lawmakers look to raid the reserve cash of the already suffering Arizona school districts to backfill the state budget shortfall:

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/115213.php
"Officials of several school groups expressed strong concerns about the proposal. "

Since when are schools supposed to be funding the state? Isn't it the other way around. 600+ pink slips that went out in Tucson (TUSD) this semester. Those former employees will want to collect unemployment and won't be paying as many taxes as before, making the cycle worse, not better, and the school districts need some resources! How are they supposed to teach?

Rep. Carl Seel proposed this idea. Don't forget to send him an e-mail and tell him if you're opposed to it: cseel@azleg.gov, or call (602) 926-3018

Gov. Brewer's 100th day in office and still no budget:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/115214.php

"As Republicans panned the tax increase idea and started considering borrowing and other alternatives previously on the no-go list, Democrats tried to change the subject.
They called on Brewer to spell out a plan for solving a crisis that has led to state employees layoffs, funding cuts for safety-net programs and thousands of school teachers put on notice they may lose their jobs. "

This AP article somehow fails to mention the closed-door meeting and some Democrats' claims that the bulk of the legislature has been entirely excluded from these budget negotiations.

Yes, it's been a while

2009-04-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

In the latest news:
Paltry turnout for the ABOR meeting on tuition: Some say it's apathy, but Sallygradstudent thinks it's weariness. How many meetings have we attended and been ignored?
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/21/News/Forum.Turnout.Paltry-3719166.shtml

The Tucson Citizen does a huge article on Provost Meredith Hay's first year at U of A:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/114790.php

Here's what we can't figure out: "The changes are already being launched, and by the fall, UA will look markedly different. There will be new schools and departments created by mergers and consolidations, and - courtesy of those massive state cuts - larger class sizes and more graduate assistants filling in for unfunded faculty lines."

We've heard that graduate student positions are being cut and class sizes increased.

What have you heard?

$1,100 surcharge

2009-04-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

According to the Tucson Citizen and a campus-wide memo sent by Pres. Shelton, a $1,100 surcharge may be added to next year's tuition (which, as you will recall, was already significantly increased by the Regents): http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/114121.php
In the Wildcat: http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/10/News/Ua.To.Add.Tuition.Surcharge-3706328.shtml

One colleague of Sallygradstudent commented that two of her undergraduate students stated that they will not be able to afford to go to UA next semester because they already could barely afford the tuition increase, much less the surcharge.

What is most insulting is that the administration is calling this an 'economic recovery' surcharge, giving the false impression that this is somehow a plan to help students recover from the bad economy, not a way for the administration to 'recover' the funds lost from the state cuts. (Just read the comments after the Tucson Citizen article.)

In other news: "Class sizes worry GPSC". GATs and GPSC's President Bieda explain the inevitable snowball effect of cutting GATs. Fewer GATs= bigger classes, more time grading and less quality education for students and teachers alike:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/10/News/Class.Sizes.Worry.Gpsc-3706344.shtml

Where to begin?

2009-04-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Pres. Shelton took some hard questions from the GPSC and members of the audience last night. More details to come (we were totally there), but for now, here's Shain Bergan's well-written article in the Wildcat:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/09/News/Grads.Grill.Shelton-3704352.shtml

By the way, our absolute favorite speaker of the night was Hope Jones, who explained that there are two President Sheltons, one who sticks up for us grads and one who is a politician.

In the Daily Star today Aaron Mackey reports on the $1,000 tuition surcharge proposed by Pres. Shelton: http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/288069.php
As several graduate students explained last night at the GPSC meeting, what the money is called is almost as important as how much money is charged. Tuition waivers and fellowships would cover all or part of "tuition" surcharges, while they would not cover additional "fees". The semantics are almost as important as the economics.

Also, the audience received a copy of the proposed fee increases last night, including a utilities fee. As Sallygradstudent has said time and time again, there needs to be an immediate campus-wide utilities conservation program enacted. ASUA needs to pick this one up and get students to stop turning the air down to 55 degrees in classrooms, get the lights turned off at night, etc.
Get on the ball, ASUA!

SHELTON AT GPSC TODAY

2009-04-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

Don't miss it!
Pres. Shelton will be at the GPSC meeting tonight, 6-8pm in Law 168!

*There will certainly be members of the press and other administrators at the meeting, so bring your outrage, but keep it professional.

In the news today:

TUSD hands out 600 pink slips: http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/287908.php
For those of us who've always thought to ourselves, "If I get sick of this graduate school stuff, I could always teach high school", this is disappointing. More seriously, though, it means that the state of our public schools is in crisis. Students who don't have the education they deserve at the elementary and secondary levels are at high risk of either not making it to college, or not performing to their full potential in college, making everyone's jobs harder and further excluding valuable and inteligent students from academia.

TUSD blames this situation on the legislature's failure to act on the budget. Have you e-mailed, called or written to your legislators lately?

Pima Community College may raise tuition slightly: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/287879.php

Saturday Night Live: "ASU, yes. U of A, no."

2009-04-07T11:33:00.001-07:00

In case you missed it, SNL did an Obama stimulus parody this weekend and mentioned U of A.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/presidential-address/1081312/

(Go to about 1 minute 10 seconds left and you'll hear the reference).

It's funny, but in all seriousness, it should serve as a little reminder that the Arizona state legislature has the power to exclude us from benefiting from the stimulus package. When was the last time you e-mailed your represntative? (Links to appropriations committee members and to the azleg website are on the left-side column of this blog.) It takes about 30 seconds to give them a little piece of your mind and it feels pretty good to tell them about the importance of quality public education in our state.

News, News, News

2009-04-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

GPSC elections results are in. You can read about outgoing president Bieda's statement and other exciting tidbits in the Daily Wildcat. Shain Bergan's reporting is sharp and accurate. He might be one of our new favorite journalists:

"It was not quite the drama voters have come to expect of student government - no one cried, unlike ASUA elections - but the Graduate and Professional Student Council elections last night yielded over 600 total votes, double the turnout of last year."

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/07/News/Graduate.Elections.BudgetFocused-3700216.shtml

The faculty senate has voted to accept the majority of the proposed organizational changes to the university. A list is available in the article, although we think it reads about as easily as stereo instructions:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/07/News/Faculty.Alters.Colleges-3700215.shtml

The local news for primary and secondary schools:

TUSD may lay off up to 600 people:
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/287654.php
TUSD teachers plan an protest:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/113782.php

Arizona state lawmakers complain (and rightfully so) that they are being excluded from budget meetings and that a handfull of legislators is making the decisions for everyone. At the same time, no bills are being debated and passed, meaning that many of our elected officials are sitting around, waiting for something to do:

"A few people in leadership at the top are sitting in rooms, with the door closed, deciding the future of Arizona," said Rep David Schapira, D-Tempe. "The rest of us are just down here for show."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/business/113820.php

"Education Chief Says Don't Over do it on Cuts"

2009-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

When you read the title of this Daily Star article, it seems like you're going to hear about the education chief telling the legislature not to over do it. Actually, it's the education chief telling the schools not to panic and accidentally cut too much. Teachers who have been given pink slips are, understandably, upset (for themselves and their students).

Rather than criticize the legislature for failing to take action, failing to re-organize their priorities, or Gov. Brewer for instructing schools to do exactly what they just did (behave as if they could receive up to a 60% cut), Tom Horne tells the schools not to panic.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/287577.php

Perhaps our legislature should re-prioritize and not be surprised when schools panic under the threat of up to 60% cuts. We need guidance, not cut-and-wait attitudes.

Bad News, Good News

2009-04-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

TUSD sends notices to over 500 teachers that they may not be re-hired next school year due to budget cuts from the state legislature:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/breakingnews/113587.php

8th graders don't let their age stop them from protesting the budget cuts effecting their schools. They use language arts class as an opportunity to learn about civic duty and persuasive writing while telling Gov. Brewer what they think of the budget cuts:
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/287361.php

A message from the President

2009-04-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

After so much silence from the administration, and resulting confusion in the campus community, Pres. Shelton released a statement today regarding the funding situation and the possible results of the stimulus bill. He reminds us that this bill will consist of temporary funding, not permanant funding (the kind that results in full-time jobs, etc).

Shelton says: "In closing, I come back to our "mantra" of quality. The UA is one of the premier research universities in the world. The people of Arizona deserve access to the educational opportunities we provide, the quality of life enhancements that result from our research and community outreach, and the economic gains that our federal research funding fuels."

Read the complete memo here: http://www.president.arizona.edu/prescomm_more.cfm?f_ID=102

Pres. Shelton is scheduled to attend the GPSC meeting Wednesday, April 8th, 6-8pm in Law 168. We suggest that you pressure him to give a clear answer about what exactly "quality" means.

If you want to speak at the meeting, e-mail: bmbarker@email.arizona.edu. If you just want to attend, no reservation is necessary; it's free and open to the public, standing room only.

Tuition cap debate

2009-04-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

While the tuition taskforce in ABOR was able to squeak out a 6-5 vote recommending that tuition be uncapped (as the upper end of the lower 1/3 of its peer institutions), it may be that tuition stays capped.

ABOR set up an e-mail address to hear your opinions: universitybudgetcuts@gmail.com

Apparently Tommy Bruce (ASUA president) is pretty upset about the vote. Maybe that million dollar concert he proposed wasn't actually the best idea... Want to tell him that? tbruce@email.arizona.edu

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/04/02/News/Students.Await.Board.Vote-3693986.shtml

Want to hear it from the top?

2009-03-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

President Shelton will be attending the GPSC meeting April 8th to answer questions from graduate students. See the GPSC press release for more details:

President Shelton Visit Press Release 3.31.09

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work student meeting

GPSC elections are going on until April 3rd.
Vote now or don't complain later:
www.gpsc.arizona.edu

...in a handbasket

2009-03-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

According to an e-mail from Stephen Bieda III, Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) president, Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) has just voted to suspend the "top of the bottom 1/3 policy". This policy mandates the Arizona state universities not price their tuition any higher than the lower 1/3 of peer universities. Considering the importance of this policy in maintaining reasonable tuition and fee increases in the past, this is a bad sign for those of us who are paying for school.

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/31/News/Abor-May.Waive.Tuition.Limits-3690380.shtml

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/113336.php

Unfortunately, ABOR doesn't update its website often enough to get a good read on what this means for next year's tuition prices: http://www.abor.asu.edu/

Got a problem with the new decision? You can e-mail the regents at: universitybudgetcuts@gmail.com

Tuition "Taskforce"

2009-03-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Tucson Citizen reports that U of A is looking into sharply increasing fees:

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/113233.php

Our favorite part is how the GPSC provided them with the numbers that probably any other part of the school would keep secret. Why won't our school be straight with us? All these hidden fees remind us of shopping for cars.

Tuition Surcharge

2009-03-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

The Arizona Board of Regents is looking into a tuition surcharge for the coming year in order to offset budget shortfalls:

“Everything’s on the table,” said Fred Boice, president of the Arizona Board of Regents.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/286596.php

The article quotes NAU President John Haeger, saying that the increase could be about $200-$300. If you work a minimum wage job, that amounts to about 28 - 42 hours of work at a minimum wage ($7.25/hour) job, or about 2-3 extra hours of work per week over the course of the semester. If you're a student already working 20+ hours a week, this means a significant increase, if you are able to find work at all. Consider the fact that the U of A plans to lay off student workers in order to save money.

Just for fun: the definition of surcharge can be: "an additional charge, tax or cost" OR "an excessive sum or price charged; an additional or excessive load or burden" (Dictionary.com)

Success!!!!!!! (?)

2009-03-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo!!!!!

From the Arizona Daily Star:

"State lawmakers will have to restore at least $150 million in cuts they just made to higher education to keep Arizona from losing more than $800 million in federal education stimulus funds.

Draft rules by the U.S. Department of Education require states to use their allocations to help restore public support to the higher figure of what was being spent either this budget year or the previous one.

While some GOP lawmakers are upset about the federal rules — and the need to give money back to universities — Gov. Jan Brewer is not, her press aide said.

"This governor views this as a good opportunity to restore some critical funding to universities," Paul Senseman said. He said Brewer realizes, though, that makes it more "challenging" to produce a balanced budget."

http://www.azstarnet.com/business/286208.php

From the Daily Wildcat:

"The development is a complication for legislators and Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as they struggle to keep the current budget in the black despite a new shortfall expected to reach $500 million. That's despite the January approval of a plan to close a $1.6 billion gap in the then-$9.9 billion budget."

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/27/News/Stimulus.May.Allay.Budget.Cuts-3685909.shtml

Write to Gov. Brewer as soon as possible and tell her that you support restoring the university budgets in order to meet the requirements for the stimulus package:

The Honorable Jan Brewer
Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Telephone (602) 542-4331
Toll Free 1-(800) 253-0883
Fax (602) 542-1381

Or visit her website and fill out the comments form: http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

Don't know what to say?

Phone: "I am an Arizona resident and student and I am calling to encourage the governor to restore the funding to university education so that Arizona can benefit from the stimulus package." (They will make a note of it and then hang up on you.)

Letter:
"Dear Gov. Brewer,
I am a resident of Arizona and a student and I am writing to encourage you to restore the funding to higher education and accept the stimulus package from the federal government. This is the best way to ensure quality public higher education and stimulate our state's economy through innovation. Thank you for your time and careful consideration of this matter.
Sincerely, [your name]."

The governor is the sole person who can decide to accept or reject these stimulus dollars. Make sure to tell her how you feel so that she knows the will of the people when she runs for election!

"Have I told you lately that I love you?"

2009-03-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

GPSC is really standing strong in the face of overwhelming budget cuts in the coming years, and many of the officers currently serving in GPSC are not running for reelection. They are doing this for the good of the school and for the protection of graduate students!

Here is their statement in response to the projected fee increases. For more information, visit http://www.gpsc.arizona.edu/ or e-mail gpsc@email.arizona.edu

"Fee Policy Statement
Considering the rise of new fees in light of the economic crisis our State and University face,
The Graduate & Professional Student Council propose the following provisions attach to new fees and fee increases:

1) A Sunset Clause: given that the current fee requests are induced by the present economic downturn of the State economy, and that economic recovery is expected within the next two years, we request that fees be re-approved after two years (i.e., in FY 2011). This length of time is based on economic forecasts published by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee1.

2) A “Minimum Enrollment Requirement:” students should not be subject to fees if they do not meet minimum enrollment requirement for financial aid (e.g., this currently stands at six credit hours).

3) A “Distance Learning Exemption:” distance learning students should be exempt from paying fees that fund on-campus services only (such as the Rec Center fee).

4) Fee Remission: since fee amounts are becoming very significant, we believe GAs should receive full fee remission. Failure to do so endangers competitiveness of our graduate programs, since it equates to incomplete tuition remission and a pay cut for students providing key services to the University, whether as teaching or research assistants.

5) Commensurate Financial Aid Eligibility: All students who pay fees should receive an equal opportunity to the financial aid derived from those fees. This includes all graduate and professional students, including non-degree-seeking and international students. We ask that the University continue and strengthen its commitment to financial aid for the graduate and professional student population."

If you get a chance, thank your GPSC rep. They're working their butts off for us!

Do you have something to say?

2009-03-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

A blog is only as strong as its readers and its contributors. We accept submissions for postings and tips. E-mail us at sallygradstudent@gmail.com. Feel free to write anonymously or with a pseudonym. We will never reveal your name or information. We will not be intimidated.

A very big distraction

2009-03-25T11:52:00.001-07:00

ASUA announced yesterday that they will be sponsoring a concert for up to 17,000 people at the football stadium on campus. Production costs will be over $1 million. Tommy Bruce is quoted in the Daily Star as saying that all losses will be absorbed by the ASUA. What a tragic waste of time and resources. Is this why the concert is titled "Last Smash"?

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/285880.php

Try to keep your eye on the ball, ASUA.

GPSA Week and GPSC Meeting wih Pres. Shelton

2009-03-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

From Stephen Bieda III, GPSC president:
"Hi all,
The University of Arizona's Graduate & Professional Student Council is pleased to announce that UA President Robert N. Shelton will address the General Council and students on April 8, 2009 in LAW 168 at 6 pm for 2 hours.
The issues that the President intends to speak about include the budget, fees and the Transformation Plan. This meeting is open to all students, standing room only, with 30 minutes of questions from students attending. Please e-mail GPSC Assembly Chairwoman Bridget Barker, bmbarker@email.arizona.edu, if youwould like to ask President Shelton any questions.
Thanks,
Stephen W. Bieda IIIGraduate & Professional Student Body President"

Next week is GPSA (Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation) week. Check http://www.gpsc.arizona.edu/ for updates on activities, events, the GPSC elections (beginning March 27th) and lots of opportunities for free or cheap food, networking, family fun and blowing off steam.

Consider This

2009-03-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Community colleges

In what looks like an effort to re-direct resources from Universities to Community Colleges, Rep. Kavanaugh has proposed requiring the universities to accept credit for all 100, 200 and 300 level courses taken by students at community colleges. If you're a GAT, you know what this could mean for your job. The teaching will shift locations, eliminating the need for the universities to pay tuition reimbursement and benefits. It also would siphon tuition dollars away, meaning less money to pay professors, GRAs and GATs in the future. Additionally, consider the difference between the type of experience and education offered by the two types of institutions.

Here's the bill: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/1r/bills/hb2438p.htm

Cuts

ASU's president explains the possible scenarios for a 5, 10, 15 or 20 percent cut, as mandated by the governor:

"The reductions of 5-10-15-20 percents [for ASU] would require layoffs of 740, 1,010, 1,280 and 1,550 professional staff, the university said."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/business/112568.php

FEES! FEES! FEES!

2009-03-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

"In the short term, the budget cuts have University of Arizona leaders initially proposing roughly $1,000 in new and increased mandatory fees in a move they say is necessary to keep paying for critical services such as utilities to run buildings on campus. "

Read the full article here:

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/284137.php

Take a look at the comments section, too. Michael K. says:

"I did not see any mention of the proposed fees for graduate students.
The proposed fees are in the range of $2000 - $3000 per year, depending on who you ask. Currently in the sciences, we pay between $260 - $400 per year, depending on if you are a US or foreign student. This is a 500 ~ 1200% increase in grad student fees. Or put another way, we are going to take a 20% pay-cut next year (if this comes to pass).

I fail to see how the UA plans to be a top-10 public university. In the coming weeks, many prospective grad students will visit the UA and decide whether or not they should come here. Once they discover that they have to pay some ridiculous fees, they will choose to go somewhere else. For example the University of Oregon, a similiar university in terms of rank and prestige, will charge their grad students $200 per semester next year. "

Good point, Michael K.!

Is your major being cut?

2009-03-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/111855.php

Majors targeted for cuts:
Family and consumer sciences education - BS
Teaching and teacher education - EdD
Secondary Education, all tracks (10 majors) - BA
Physical Education - BS
Bilingual/bicultural education - MEd
Bilingual/multicultural education - MA
Rehabilitation Counseling - EdD
Speacial education - EdS *
Engineering Bachelors of Art - BA (still offer BS in engineering)
Engineering Math - BS
Engineering Physics -(BS)
Reliability ad quality engineering - MS
French - PhD
Genetic Counseling - MS
Biochemistry, bachelors of Art (still offer BS in biochem)
Mathematical Sciences - professional science masters

*This spelling is in the original article.

Is your major on this list? Send us an e-mail and tell us how you feel about it: sallygradstudent@gmail.com.
We will never publish your name or any other information without your permission.

A Good Opinion

2009-03-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Check out U of A gradstudent Eva Romero's guest opinion in the Daily Star on how AZ could take a hint from facebook. When your customers aren't satisfied, your business won't run smoothly!

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/283531.php

"Here in Arizona, I am very unhappy with how legislators have completely ignored ongoing protests of the budget handling. In comparison, Facebook's response to mass protests has been intelligent, sensitive to long-term impact and swift. "

Eva Romero also runs a blog on all things Tucson entertainment: tucsonquerido.blogspot.com

More bad news

2009-03-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

"Gov. Jan Brewer, searching for solutions to Arizona's estimated $3 billion revenue shortfall next year, asked all state agencies to provide scenarios for cuts to their organizations of 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent.
The state's three public universities and the Arizona Board of Regents did so in a 30-page document that begins with emphasizing the "maintenance of effort" provision in the federal stimulus funding package and the "crippling" effect additional cuts would have on higher education."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/111769.php

You see, the fed will only give AZ the stimulus money for education if funding is maintained at the 2006 level. We're nearly that low already (considering recent cuts). So the AZ leg wouldn't be able to cut the universities much more and still take the cash.

Have you written to your legislator lately?

Thousands Turn Out to Protest Cuts to Schools!

2009-03-05T08:10:00.001-08:00

From the AZ Daily Star:
"Eric Shelley, a budget specialist for a health-care company, said the Legislature must invest in education so the state can improve its business development and generate more tax revenue.
"Businesses don't want to come here if they think there's no education going on, if there's no place for their employees to raise their kids," he said. "If you are pro-business, you should be pro-education." "
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/282932

From the Daily Wildcat:
"The university budget cuts have been an obvious cause for concern for administrators, legislators and student leaders. For as much attention as some have given the crisis, most students do not yet realize the impact it will have on their education."
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/05/News/Caught.Between.A.Rock.And.A.Hard.Place-3661369.shtml?reffeature=htmlemailedition

From the Tucson Citizen:
"The protesters included students, parents, people from school organizations, labor unions and others critical of budget cuts already made and the prospect of deeper reductions.
In January, the Legislature cut about $130 million from K-12 public schools to help close a $1.6 billion shortfall in the then-$9.9 billion budget for the current fiscal year."
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/fromcomments/111445.php

KVOA 4's video

March 4th Rally at the State Capitol

2009-03-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

From Speak up now, Arizona:

"Wednesday, March 4th at 4pm we need to voice our opposition by attending the March4Schools (http://march4schools.com/) rally. This rally will be the largest mobilization of education supporters in our state's history. Thousands of students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers will converge on the Capitol to demonstrate Arizona's broad and deep support for our public schools."

Out-of-Control Fees

2009-03-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

The requests for new fees are now out. Although the spreadsheet is a little hard to interpret, it looks like graduate students are looking at well over $1,000 in new fees, none of which are currently covered by GAT and GRA remission. Although Dean Comrie has proposed that the new Graduate College fee be covered by remissions, Pres. Shelton has refused to commit to this.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12955273/Fee-Requests-2009

Write Pres. Shelton and Dean Comrie a letter explaining how much of a burden these fees will be to you: Robert.shelton@arizona.edu, comrie@email.arizona.edu

Click below for an update on the current proceedings in the State Legislature on the upcoming 2010 budget:
http://www.externalrelations.arizona.edu/government_state_update.cfm

Rally March 4th

2009-03-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

This is predicted to be one of the largest mobilizations of educators in the state! Details can be found in the Wildcat article below!

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/03/News/Rally.To.Seek.School.Support-3656932.shtml

ABOR is looking into changing the firing policy for faculty, meaning that tenure track professors could be fired with 90 days notice due to budget shortfalls.
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/03/03/News/Faculty.Looks.At.Likely.Layoff.Policy-3656930.shtml
"One of the most important things we can all do as we deal with these very difficult times is, as they say, 'hang together' so we don't 'hang separately,'"

Quality PUBLIC education

2009-03-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

In the Tucson Citizen today: Gary Rhoades from the American Association of University Professors denounces Arizona's response to the budget crisis. Raising tuition, accepting more out of state students and putting education out of reach for so many Arizonans will do more harm than good.

"And we all suffer. These policies hurt not only the students who lose out on this opportunity, but also our economy.
They're limiting our ability to expand the middle class, the tax base, and all the social and cultural benefits that go with higher levels of educational attainment.
Throughout our country's history, cities have understood that a college or university is an investment that benefits the whole community.
Higher education is a public good, not just a private good."

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/opinion/111259.php

In today's news

2009-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

The College of Fine Arts will be incorporated into the new College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, meaning that many programs stand to get cut entirely.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/110957.php

Some lawmakers have proposed that the property tax should be repealed, despite the $250 million dollars it would bring in for schools and public services. The Tucson Citizen agrees with Sallygradstudent: we shouldn't be giving back money we can't afford to lose. Corporate welfare or the services our state has promised us?
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/opinion/110868.php

The low down: An interview with GPSC president Stephen Bieda III

2009-02-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

Stephen Bieda has been tirelessly fighting for our right to quality public education throughout these budget cuts. Right now it has come down to this: "Which fight do I pick?" Since October, the entire GPSC has been protesting, organizing and negotiating for themselves and their constituents, all in an effort to save our school. Stephen Bieda III took some time out of his extremely busy schedule to sit down and explain the current news on the budget negotiations to Sallygradstudent. Here is the information he provided:

Proposed Fees: Graduate college: $1,000, Technology: $215, Library: $95, and some course-specific fees.

GPSC has appealed to Dean Comrie to have the $1,000 graduate college fee covered by GAT or RA tuition remissions. Dean Comrie has written to Pres. Shelton in favor of this support, but Pres. Shelton is reluctant to approve it.

Pres. Shelton has stated that for every $20 million cut by the state, $1,000 in additional fees are needed to keep the university running. In the best case scenario, we are looking at $50 million in state cuts for the 2010 fiscal year. That comes out to $2,500 in fees per year, per student. If you are a GAT or GRA making $18,000/year (many earn less) then this would equivalent to an almost 14% pay cut. Projected maximum cuts from the state are $155 million, meaning $7,750 in resulting fees. If these fees were not covered by the GAT and GRA remissions, they would amount about 41.6%.

Keep in mind that only 40% of graduate students at U of A have GAT or GRA positions. According to Bieda, the average graduate student at U of A graduates with $38,000 in debt (increasing 7% per year for inflation). With the loss of faculty, the hiring freeze and fewer opportunities for research and innovation, we have to ask ourselves: will our degrees be valuable enough to pay back this debt?

GPSC supports the increased fees for the library, which hasn't gotten a budget increase in 7 years, even to adjust for inflation. Sallygradstudent also supports the library fees, as long as they are spent on materials acquisition and maintenance, not laptops and presentation rooms.

The projected results of the upcoming cuts are:

Dramatic tuition hikes for both undergraduate and graduate students. ABOR is currently looking into suspending its previous limit on next year's tuition increase.

Pres. Shelton has stated that there "definitely" will be fewer TAs next year.

The TA to student ratio will certainly increase. Pres. Shelton has publicly stated that he is not worried about TAs working 5 more hours a week (for which they will not be compensated).

It has been proposed that Centennial Hall be used as a classroom. Centennial Hall seats 2,500 people.

The University of Arizona may be forced to dissolve their Land Grant university status. Because the Land Grant commitment requires state support, and the state has withdrawn this support, this may release U of A's obligation to stay in the lower 1/3 of tuition at comparable universities.

195 FTE (full time equivalent) jobs were cut in 2008-9. 12% of those were faculty. There is also a hiring freeze in effect. For the next year we will lose a predicted 600 employees, including 180 FTEs for graduate students. These jobs will not be eliminated by taking back unfilled positions or through early retirement or attrition. These are real people actually working at the university today who will be laid off.

What can you do?

President Shelton will be attending the entire (2 hour) GPSC Meeting on April 8, 2009. Anyone can attend and comment or question during the call to audience. Because of the anticipated large turnout for this meeting, please e-mail the gpsc to get on the call to audience list ahead of time: gpsc@email.arizona.edu. You do not need to e-mail if you are just planning to attend.

Continue to check the GPSC for updates: http://www.gpsc.arizona.edu/

Write another angry letter to your elected (or appointed) representatives. How dare they violate this government's commitment to education?

Governor Jan Brewer: Telephone (602) 542-4331, Toll Free 1-(800) 253-0883, and it might not be a bad idea to mail an actual letter that can't be deleted without even being read (as some e-mails are rumored to have been):

Honorable Jan Brewer

1700 West Washington

Phoenix, Arizona 85007

and don't forget your legislators:

http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp

Cutting schools to fund businesses

2009-02-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

New proposals spell welfare for certain businesses and even higher cuts for education.

Governor Brewer tells publicly-funded agencies to brace themselves for even more severe cuts:

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/110842.php

"The new directive to agencies comes as some Republican lawmakers bristle under criticism resulting from impacts of the previously approved cuts. Agencies have responded by laying off workers and cutting popular services ranging from child care subsidies to state parks. "

Meanwhile, some GOP leaders in our state seek to repeal property taxes that would bring in $250 million:

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/281477.php

"Elizabeth Slaine, who teaches English at Tucson High Magnet School, said she sees the issue in a different light.
The revenue loss would mean less money for education, she said. And Arizona's economy won't improve unless there are people qualified to be in business. "

Particularly disconcerting about this article is Rep. Andy Biggs' response to his constitutents' concerns:

"The revenue loss would mean less money for education, she said. And Arizona's economy won't improve unless there are people qualified to be in business.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, scoffed at that contention. "

As someone who has benefited from the public education system of Arizona (Rep. Biggs has a J.D. from U of A, an M.A. from ASU, and is working on a Ph.D. at ASU) his seemingly blatant disregard for the value of public education in our state is shocking. If business and education are not connected, as Rep. Biggs contends, then why has he taken full advantage of the public education afforded to him as a resident of Arizona? Perhaps Rep. Biggs feels that only the priviledged have a right to quality public education. Send him an e-mail and ask if this is the case: mailto:abiggs@azleg.gov

http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=4&Legislature=49

Join the Sallygradstudent Facebook group

2009-02-20T15:19:00.001-08:00

Show your support for public education in Arizona by joining our facebook group!

Gradstudents for Change in Arizona-Sallygradstudent.blogspot.com

More groups:

Speak Up Now, Arizona

Arizona Students Against University Budget Cuts

Arizona Students Against Cuts to Higher Education Action Group

Arizona Families Against the Proposed Education Cuts

Arizona State University Fighting for THEIR EDUCATION

From Speak Up Now, Arizona

2009-02-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

"Hi all,
There is a rally in support of public education this Tuesday (February 24) at the Capitol starting at 4:30pm. Please come and bring as many people with you as you possibly can! Is it being organized by a group of young, motivated high school students and they are trying to send a strong message to the legislature.
Here is the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=48168292503
If you attend the rally (which I hope you will), please stop by the Speak Up Now booth and say hello. We'll have a camera set up so rally attendees can record a video message for all the wonderful legislators who want to cut public education funding.
Haroon"

If you're unable to attend the rally, take 5 minutes out of your day to call your legislators and let them know that you support the crowd gathered outside their building.

Appropriations committee:
John Kavanagh (Chair): (602) 926-5170
Andy Biggs (Vice Chair): (602) 926-4371
Russell Pearce (Chair): (602) 926-5760
Al Melvin (Vice Chair): (602) 926-4326

Governor Brewer: (602) 542-4331
Toll Free 1-(800) 253-0883

Who's in your wallet?

2009-02-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

Basically, it comes down to this:

Facing even more budget cuts for 2010 (on top of the $57 million cut for 2009), the Arizona Board of Regents is considering raising tuition even more than it originally approved in FALL 09 (next semester).

"And if the universities were to ask for another increase, they may not be bound by a long-held standard that requires tuition at the universities to be in the bottom third when compared to peer institutions across the country. " http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/280980.php

Fees of up to $1000 for things such as technology and libraries have been proposed. The advantage of fees (from the perspective of the administration) is that they do not require approval from ABOR and it's difficult to fight them. The disadvantage is that graduate students do not have fees paid by the tuition remission in their GAT and RA-ships. For a graduate student who makes $18,000 a year, a $1000 fee increase would be equivalent to a 5.5% pay cut.

None of this goes to solving the increasing class sizes, increasing prices and the suffering K-12 education that might make our job even harder when these students come to college less prepared.

"If we can't get a hold on this soon, we're not only going to be driving away businesses from this state; we're going to be driving away families who might not want to come here." — Rep. Nancy Young Wright, D-Oro Valley"
"The universities took more cuts than any other state agency. This year, education was the No. 1 casualty. Next year, let us be your No. 1 antidote." — University of Arizona President Robert Shelton " http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/byauthor/280234

Want to see how the cuts are being accommodated at U of A? http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/related/280977

From the Wildcat

2009-02-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

Why spend money on education (something that we can all agree, tends to keep people out of prison) when you could spend it on jails and pump up the security industry?
This Daily Wildcat writer has a good point. Why are we 'investing' in jails?
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/19/Opinions/State.Needs.To.Reexamine.Priorities-3638101.shtml

Good Idea: Bad Idea

2009-02-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Landscaping:
Nickolas Seibel (Arizona Daily Wildcat's Chief editor) suggests we pitch in and beautify our campus. Unfortunately, he doesn't take into account the overall cost of electricity, plant purchasing and water that it takes to keep U of A the green oasis surrounded by desert that it is. Rather than take this opportunity to suggest that U of A go sustainable (by xeroscaping, for example) he complains about the unwillingness of groups to pitch in and work.

This is just another example of well-intentioned ideas that simply will not work. Eye on the prize, people! A little brown grass and a few dry fountains are hardly worth complaining over when the U of A is closing whole departments and laying off hundreds of employees.

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/18/News/Lets-Bear.Down.For.Arizona-3635619.shtml

Student fees:
In a much better effort at criticism, this article questions the amount of fees students will be asked to pay. Keep in mind what the article does not mention: The library has suggested that it may need to raise fees by over $100 next year just to keep the doors open and books on the shelves. Unlike tuition, fees can be raised without the ABOR's approval, making them a tempting source of funding in this budget crisis. It's extremely important to remember, however, that unlike tuition, fees are out-of-pocket for graduate students, and are not covered by tuition reimbursement. Increased fees are equivalent to a pay cut if you're a GAT or RA.
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/18/Opinions/Editorial-3635592.shtml

Tax credits:
Education tax credits are one of the very few ways we can determine where our tax dollars are spent. These might also get the ax:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/110355.php

BUDGET PROTEST FEB. 26!

2009-02-16T11:10:00.001-08:00

Why would you go to the rodeo when you could participate in our democratic process by protesting even MORE proposed budget cuts to education.

Do you care about Arizona? Do you care about your education and the future of our economy?

Rally for Public Education
Thursday, February 26
10am - 1pm
Arizona State Capitol

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/280387.php

Leadership = Collaboration

2009-02-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

From "Wielding raw power isn't good leadership" by Prof. John J. Pedicone in the Daily Star:

"Legislative "leadership" responded to the outcry with a cavalier attitude and compared the process of elimination of services to going into a restaurant and looking at a menu. It was at that moment that a powerful statement was made that defined the character of those decision makers."

"Most of us felt a sense of powerlessness that was amplified by concerns about whether legislators would embrace leadership or simply use the power of the office to advance an ideological agenda."

http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/280131.php

From the AZ Republic: "Don't Balance the Budget on the Backs of the Universities":
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/02/15/20090215sun1-15.html

We're willing to pay higher taxes for the good of the state:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/02/15/20090215sunlets151.html

The Wildcat reports on Budget Hearings:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/16/News/Education.Faces.Losses-3631561.shtml

Common Sense

2009-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

It's disappointing when Tommy Bruce seems to jump in front of a microphone at every available opportunity so that he can shout a curse word and then that is what sit onto the 6 o'clock news. Even more disappointing is how student government seems to have entirely missed the point of these budget cuts: we don't have money to waste anymore.

After heated debate and a temporarily dead-locked vote, ASUA approved $980 to spend on 'safety cards', which would have contact information that students could use in case they run into trouble while boozing and dancing it up south of the border this Spring Break.
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/12/News/Safety.Card.Money.Splits.Asua-3626781.shtml

Contrary to the members who supported this initiative, we would argue that these cards have the potential to create a sense of false hope and safety for students who are going to Mexico despite State department and U of A administrations' warnings.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/110140.php

Wouldn't it be more prudent for ASUA to send an e-mail to every student on campus with the warning and then the phone numbers that would have been on the card? If you choose to travel anyway, you can print the numbers out and shove them in your wallet! Total price: $0.00

Get your act together, ASUA. We're trying to save our school.

More reasons to contact your legislators

2009-02-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

Cutting off the universities' funding wasn't enough for certain vengeful members of this state legislature, too focused on their anger at our former governor to see clearly into the future of Arizona. Here are some other major changes they want to make to our institutions. While we're distracted with our deepened poverty, these bills could sneak in the back door:

While you're calling your representatives and senators about the budget cuts, make sure to tell them how you feel about these bills:

Gun-toting students and teachers:
"H.B. 2607. Schools; Disruption; Interference; Concealed Firearms.
The intent of the bill is to allow a person with a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm on the property of an educational institution, which includes state universities."

If you're a graduate student teacher, you know why this bill is so dangerous. Have you ever had a heated discussion with a student over a grade, a disagreement, a course policy, or just had someone who was a little 'off' in your class? Consider that if you are an international student (forbidden by federal law from carrying a firearm at all), you could end up being the only one in your classroom NOT carrying a gun. Is it hard to imagine students carrying guns in their backpacks, and accidentally causing them to go off when dumping their bags on the floor when they enter class?

When this bill was originally proposed, the Tucson and U of A police came out against it strongly. It would mean that they could no longer respond to reports of someone carrying a gun until that person was actually threatening or firing with it. Pres. Shelton is also against it.

Exclusion of domestic partners from health benefits:
"S.B. 1174. State Employee Health Insurance; Coverage
This bill would define dependent so as to exclude domestic partners from obtaining either employee or retiree health insurance provided by the Department of Administration."

So many high-quality faculty live with domestic partners. This bill is only more encouragement to move to another state where the government interferes less in the personal lives of valued faculty and employees. Don't let us loose our excellent teachers because of bigotry.

Reversing Affirmative Action or anything like it:
"SCR 1031. Discrimination; Preferential Treatment; Prohibition.
A Senate Concurrent Resolution that would place on the ballot a prohibition of discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public education, or public housing."

This would probably make it difficult to offer scholarships to minority students, develop programs specifically designed to retain minority students, and offer assistance to struggling students.

Are you as angry as we are? Write to your state legislature and tell them you won't stand for it.
Tell them you won't let them turn back the clock on Arizona by decades while demolishing education and any hope for its recovery. Tell them you don't want Arizona to be known for its ignorance and backwards policies. Good state policy and good education attract good employers. If Arizona wants to excel economically, it should not waste its time on punishing its own residents, but rather focus on how to make them better educated, more economically secure, and better informed.

Take a couple of minutes to look up your state legislator and tell her/him to vote against these ballot measures: http://www.azleg.gov/

On this page, you can get updates about these bills and some of the budget cuts:
https://www.email.arizona.edu/horde/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.externalrelations.arizona.edu%2Fgovernment_state_update.cfm

Fresh Flower Freeze

2009-02-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

Sallygradstudent suggested cutting back on landscaping costs last semester. Now the budget has been cut so far that the U of A is turning off fountains and is not going to keep re-planting the mall's grass.

It's about time!

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/279889.php

The Game Isn't Over Yet

2009-02-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

From the AP, in the Tucson Citizen. Arizona's budget cuts are making the national news:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/breakingnews/109940.php

The Tucson Citizen won't let the GOP get away with decreasing revenue and then claiming that they can't pay the bills:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/opinion/109879.php

Want to know how much you won't get paid next year? U of A releases its furlough FAQs:
http://www.hr.arizona.edu/furlough_faq

ASU tries to accommodate cuts without destroying its institution:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/02/11/20090211asuadjusts0211.html
Check out the previous post on their budget cut page. It gives a complete list of the programs to be cut.

Let's not forget that new cuts are on the table for 2010. If we think it's bad now, it can certainly get worse.

As Jan Brewer tours AZ, looking for support from voters for her 2010 campaign, remind her that jobs and education in Arizona are important to you. Ask her why she rushed to sign a budget so that she could go to the Superbowl on time. Ask her why she wants to cut taxes and lay off tax collectors when AZ needs that money to pay its bills (something she claims to care about). http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/109955.php

How dare she visit a school after slashing our education funding only a few weeks ago?

Call her office and ask:
Telephone (602) 542-4331
Toll Free 1-(800) 253-0883

ASU starts slashing programs

2009-02-11T11:37:00.001-08:00

A complete list of the expected closures can be found at:
http://www.asu.edu/budgetcuts/

In addition, enrollment will be capped, applications will not be accepted as late and involuntary furloughs for employees have been announced.

Most recent news

2009-02-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the Daily Wildcat article on the Budget Cut hearing last Thursday:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/06/News/Budget.Hearing.In.Tucson-3617275.shtml
Other budget meetings will be held across the state, including one on the U of A campus. It will be essential that U of A students show up in large numbers not only to protest futher cuts (there is a huge amount of money on the table to be cut next year), but also to show support for the legislators who have been working so hard to save our state.

Check out this excellent Daily Star article on what, exactly, the budget cuts will mean for us locally: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/279167.php

K-12 suffers, too: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/109527.php

Want to see what all this means for the U of A?: http://www.externalrelations.arizona.edu/government_state_update.cfm
(This happens to be a great resource for monitoring the cuts).

It's Not Over Yet....2010 budget still on the table

2009-02-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

Legislative Democrats invite the public to a budget hearing in Tucson! (Come Express your opinions, suggestions or complaints!)
Members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees will be in attendance to hear citizens' concerns regarding the drastic cuts in the state budget.

When: Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: Amphitheater High School, Murphy Auditorium , 125 W. Yavapai, Tucson, Ariz.
Located just South of Prince off of Stone

For More Information, contact Jeanette: US +1 6029264477
or Senator Aboud's office

Common sense is not dead- even if education is on its last legs

2009-02-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

Thank God someone is still paying attention:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/02/01/20090201transparency0202.html
The budget cut negotiations took place in the middle of the night, behind closed doors, and lawmakers didn't even think that it would be appropriate to clear their voicemail boxes or have people answering the phones so that concerned citizens could call and leave comments. Due to a self-imposed rushed deadline, some lawmakers were able to make it to the Superbowl. (Lucky them!)

Budget cuts passed (Daily Wildcat):
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/02/News/Brewer.Approves.Cutbacks-3607941.shtml

Business and education go hand-in-hand (AZ Star):
http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/278189.php

More bad news for the libraries: raise student fees by $150/year or risk closures and even more cuts in acquisitions:
http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/02/News/Closures.Loom.For.Ua.Libraries-3607944.shtml

Arizona sucks at teacher retention (duh):
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/02/01/20090201teachsurvey0202.html

Don't Forget Who Did This to AZ's Kids

2009-01-31T10:53:00.001-08:00

Come time to vote, don't forget who buried education and danced on its grave.

"Senate Minority Leader Pamela Gorman likened the Legislature's mood to a funeral."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/01/31/20090131azbudget-ON.html

We are ashamed that we are already 51st in the nation (DC included) in K-12 funding and refused to raise taxes even a tiny bit to keep us from falling off the bottom of the chart entirely:

"The K-12 schools must cut their budgets a collective $113 million, which averages about 1.6 percent to individual school districts through June. Charter schools were cut $4 million, and the state Department of Education was cut $8 million.
Rep. Eric Meyer, R-Scottsdale, said he, like many other lawmakers, was flooded with emails urging lawmakers to spare cuts to schools. “Our classrooms will change, and that change will be for the worse,” said Meyer, who also serves on the Scottsdale Unified School District board."

We are ashamed of Republican lawmakers that determine their budget deadline according to how it works with their Superbowl plans:

"Gov. Jan Brewer is expected to quickly sign the bill into law, capping her first 10 days in office. She is scheduled to leave for Tampa and the Super Bowl later today."

Shame on you for what you have done. May we never forget it.

I declare a full emergency!

2009-01-30T21:52:00.001-08:00

I just received this e-mail from Paula Aboud:
"This is urgent. And this is serious. We need your help to save Education for Arizona. We just received word that Gov. Brewer is tallying the # of phone calls on the Education budget cuts! You must call her now and say eliminate the cuts to Education!!!

Her # outside Phoenix is: (800) 253-0883 Inside Phx: (602) 542-4331 Paula Aboud State Senator District 28, Tucson US +1 8003528404 Call X 6-5262 Appropriations Committee, Ranking Democrat , Health Committee Education Committee "

I just called and the voice mailbox is full!!!!!!! (11pm, Friday the 30th of January)

Write an e-mail using this website: http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

Call! Don't know what to say? Here's a suggestion:

"Hello my name is (NAME) and I live in (CITY). I am calling to oppose cuts to public K-12 and university education in Arizona. I feel that such cuts would not only be detrimental to our future, but also irreparably harm our state’s economy. I am ashamed that such cuts have even been proposed, considering Arizona’s current education standing in the nation. If (SEN/ /REP. _____) upholds these cuts, I will encourage everyone I know to vote against (HIM/HER) in the next election."

Then call Rep. Kavanagh (602) 926-5170
Speaker Adams (602) 926-549
President Burns (602) 926-5993
Sen. Pearce (602) 926-5760

Too shy? Call in the middle of the night like we did and leave a voice mail!
It’s 4 calls and will cost you 4 cell phone minutes.

You do not need to be an AZ resident, a citizen or currently living in AZ to call: You value your AZ degree, your AZ job, your child's education. No matter who you are or where you live, you have a right to defend the value of quality public education!

Do it now! Opinions are being counted! Have your voice heard before it is too late!