President Hart takes office
After being chosen in February by the Arizona Board of Regents, former Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart took office on July 1, and arrived in Tucson on July 9 with a ceremony in front of the Administration building. Days later, Hart said her first priorities were to hire several open administration positions, and that she plans to work closely with student leaders. Hart has signed a three-year, $475,000 contract.
Hart appoints Provost Andrew Comrie
Weeks after taking office, President Hart appointed Andrew Comrie as her provost. Comrie, a climatologist who has worked in the School of Geography and Development for the past 20 years, was working as the associate vice president for research and dean of the graduate college just before being appointed to provost. Comrie cited plans to implement the Arizona Board of Regents’ performance-based funding model after first addressing basic issues like class size and availability in an effort to maintain the UA’s “world-class” education.
Student housing on the rise throughout Tucson
Throughout the summer, student housing developments have been showing up on and around campus, with some still ongoing. The developments, which will cater thousands of beds to students, have seen support by Residence Life and the university itself, which has no plans to increase its number of student housing, according to Residence Life Assistant Vice President Jim Van Arsdel.
Supreme Court upholds SB 1070’s ‘Papers Please’ provision
In their mid-June ruling on Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, the Supreme Court left in the provision that allowed law enforcement to check the status of people who they believe are in the country illegally, while striking down other pieces of the bill. While Supreme Court justices did say that there were some uncertainties about the law, Tiana O’Konek, a lawyer in the UA’s Immigration Law Clinic, suggested that the court was interested in seeing how enforcing the law would work before making decisions on whether it violated any civil rights.
Local lawyers, organizations assist undocumented college hopefuls with deferred action status applications
While Obama’s DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors), to give undocumented students permanent residency remains politically gridlocked, local high school students prepared their applications for deferred action status with the help of local lawyers and organizations, many of which offered legal services free of charge. The government started accepting applications on Aug. 15, and, if granted, the renewable deferred action status would allow students to stay in the country for two years to attend college as long as they were in the country before they were 16 years old, and are younger than 30 when they apply.
Streetcar construction continues, hinders business for downtown nightclubs
Construction for the Tucson Modern Streetcar has had a presence downtown for a number of months, and bar owners noticed a drastic decrease in patronage over the summer. While some proprietors remain hopeful for the streetcar’s long-term benefits, the many had lost their optimism by the beginning of August, when The District Tavern owner Noël Chester said her Congress Street location was “struggling to survive.” The city has provided business-counseling services to owners along the streetcar route, which focuses on customer outreach and discussions on what to expect as the construction changes. Most recently, University Boulevard has opened to all traffic and parking between Euclid and Park Avenues.
