President Ann Weaver Hart discussed her strategic plan, student regent finalists were announced and changes were made to ASUA bylaws at the senate’s weekly meeting on Wednesday night.
President Hart
Hart presented her strategic plan, which includes implementing new policies and ideas for funding, integration within classes and rewarding faculty that recognize integration and application in the curriculum of their classes.
Hart explained that the university can not expect to see state funds or low tuition in the future and that the UA needs to partner with private businesses or other not-for-profits to reach its goals and gain funds. For example, she said that an affiliation agreement with a current medical provider and our campus medical center might mean “using the kinds of models that we’re developing actively in medicine, but pushing them into poetry and humanities and the social sciences, where we share costs to get more done for the same amount of revenue.”
She added that administrators really have to think about how the UA would advance its goals and the goals of those enterprises simultaneously.
Integration of students’ class work and applying it to real life was another change Hart addressed, adding that she wants to change the incentives and rewards that the UA currently has for faculty to recognize integration and application.
Sen. Alex Chang said he wanted to know what the criteria for teachers were. He said he understood that in order to do research at the UA, faculty have to teach as well.
Hart explained that the goal is to have students learn from people doing world-class research. She said she understood that they might not be the best teachers, but another goal is to help them be good teachers.
Hart also addressed the goal of creating stronger partnerships with other universities to create research and study opportunities for students, specifically with Mexican universities, since the UA is so close to the border.
A student from the audience asked if the UA would continue to hold online classes, and Hart explained that online courses are important to the UA because the university expects an increase of 10,000 students in the future, but can’t keep adding faculty.
Another student asked about her support for a possible campus-wide smoking ban. Hart said she is for the smoking ban, but that it will likely not pass any time soon as there is a lot of opposition to it.
Hart encourages students to continue to give her their input and to attend the town hall meetings she hosts.
“If I can appeal to any of you after you relax, after exams are over, when you come back in January,” Hart said, “if you see an announcement about a town hall meeting to talk about these big ideas, take the time. You’ll find it a very, very interesting discussion. I promise you, you will have a very good time.”
Bylaws
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senate approved one change to its bylaws and heard about other changes that will be voted upon next week.
Senators approved a change to the Bear Down Camp bylaws. The dates for the term of the executive director and the administrative vice president of the Bear Down Camp were changed from April-April to April-September of the following year. The change was implemented so that there will be directors for the camp during the summer, which is a four-day event that aims to provide orientation to incoming freshmen and teach them university traditions.
SafeRide directors want to change their bylaws, a topic which will be voted on next week. The program hopes to remove ASUA from its title because most of the programs that ASUA provides don’t have the organization’s name in their title. The ASUA logo will remain on the SafeRide cars.
New Service
Derek Smith gave a presentation on the UA Student Emergency Medical Services. ASUA will vote next week on whether to add the program to its list of programs and services. The program’s directors will have a year to decide if they want to stay permanently under ASUA or not.
Student Regent finalists
Senators approved James Allen, Chris Nagata and Alan Kohler as Student Regent finalists for the Arizona Board of Regents. They now await Gov. Jan Brewer’s approval.
Reports
The Residence Hall Association and Wildcat Events Board will put on Winterfest next Wednesday, which will include an ice rink on the Mall, according to Sen. Alex Chang.
Sen. Bryan Namba reported that the post office and CatCard office will move to the basement with the Cellar at the Student Union Memorial Center next year. Sen. Danielle Novelly added in her senator report that those offices will be replaced with restaurants, and she is advocating that a restaurant with healthy options to be implemented.
