Shelton’s first semester at the UA
President Robert Shelton was greeted by a welcoming party including Wilma Wildcat, students, reporters and a band at his home on July 3 – his first day on the job as UA president.
Shelton told the Arizona Daily Wildcat in June that four issues he hopes to address as president include the UA’s role as a land-grant institution, the new UA College of Medicine campus in Phoenix, enrollment management and class availability.
“”Arizona’s growing, so we need to be sure we are taking in more students, but we can’t take in more students if we can’t get them into the classes and give them a quality educational experience,”” he said.
Prior to his inauguration in October, Shelton and UA administrators made a $10.3 million cut to the UA’s operating budget, kept UApresents alive with a $1.2 million loan and put a stop to the $350 million Rainbow Bridge project.
In November Shelton’s tuition proposal, a 6.5 percent increase for residents and an 8.5 percent increase for nonresidents wasn’t completely accepted by the Arizona Board of Regents in November. The regents opted for a 5 percent increase for residents instead.
Students present united tuition proposal
An unprecedented statewide student tuition proposal was presented to the Arizona Board of Regents tuition hearing in November.
Student leaders from Arizona’s universities asked the regents to consider a 2.3 percent increase for all students, the same as the rise in median family income in Arizona, on the condition that the state Legislature approve a 12 percent hike in funds to the universities.
The proposal received mixed reactions from the regents.
Regent Fred Boice said he thought it would be hard to convince legislators to increase university funding by $150 million.
At the regents’ tuition-setting meeting Nov. 31, the student-backed proposal, introduced by Regent Dennis DeConcini, failed by a vote of six votes to four.
Instead, regents chose to increase resident tuition by 5 percent and nonresident tuition by 8.5 percent.
Regent Anne Mariucci said the board would have put itself in a risky situation if it were to depend on the Legislature to provide the money students were asking for.
But DeConcini said the student proposal would have deferred to the presidents’ higher proposals in that case.
While Boice said he did not support the student plan, he was impressed with how the students organized it. Past tuition proposals from student leaders were “”dramatic but not substantive,”” he said.
Retired professor murdered
Mac E. Hadley, a retired UA professor, was found murdered in his home after it was set on fire Nov. 15.
At the time of his death, Hadley was in the midst of a multimillion-dollar deal with long-time friend and fellow retired research partner Victor Hruby, a chemistry professor, for their work with a melanocyte-stimulating hormone that could allow tanning without exposure to ultraviolet rays.
“”Mac was passionate,”” said Hruby, who collaborated with Hadley for 37 years. “”He worked hard, he was a very dedicated and critical person and he really enjoyed what he did.””
Hadley came to the UA in 1966, when professor emeritus Joseph Bagnara suggested Hadley to teach for the endocrinology department.
“”Mac hit the ground running when he came,”” Bagnara said. “”He was really a hard-working and highly motivated guy.””
Hadley devoted himself to his teaching and research and was respected in his field, Bagnara said. His book, “”Endocrinology,”” was first published in 1973 and is still used in classrooms in its fifth edition.
Marco Antonio Chavez, 31, the man suspected of killing Hadley, was charged with first-degree murder and is being held in Pima County Jail.
Chavez was also charged with arson of an occupied structure, first-degree burglary, possession of stolen property and grand theft auto – all felony charges.
Fraternity shooting
A UA freshman was shot in the torso outside of Phi Delta Gamma fraternity house, 1801 E. First St., during the early hours of Sept. 9.
Robert Ramos, 18, and William Edward Morgan, 16, were arrested for the shooting and booked into Pima County Jail.
The shooting took place after an exchange between fraternity members and the two teenage males in the drive-through at Taco Bell, 1818 E. Speedway Blvd., police said.
Ramos and Morgan later drove by and fired shots at the fraternity house, hitting a female student, 18, who was released from UMC after surgery.
But the Dean of Students Office later said they will not investigate the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members who were allegedly associated with the event.
“”It was a random act,”” said Veda Kowalski, associate dean of students. “”This was not something that could be prevented.””
UAPD officials are waiting for ballistic and DNA evidence to be processed to finalize the investigation.
Medical and bioscience expansions
UA was thrust into the bioscience scene this semester, with the opening of the BIO5 building in Tucson and the UA College of Medicine at the new biomedical campus in downtown Phoenix.
The College of Medicine, located at 550 E. Van Buren at the three renovated Phoenix Union High Schools, will welcome its first class of 24 students this summer and reach 150 students within two years.
But the biggest hurdle the school will have to overcome is funding, according to Shelton.
Although the school received $7 million in start-up funds from the state, it will need an additional $169 million in order to increase class sizes – $33 million of which needs to come from the state, with the rest from private organizations.
Nonetheless, the Arizona Board of Regents allocated $10.5 million for the biomedical campus to UA and ASU’s fiscal 2008 budget, which will come from the state’s Technology and Research Initiative Fund.
Shelton said the biomedical campus is unique as it will call for collaboration with the Translational Genomics Institute and Arizona State University.
Vicki Chandler, director of the BIO5 Institute, also lauded the $66 million BIO5 building as an institute that promotes
collaboration among faculty in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, basic sciences and engineering, ushering in a new era of research.
Next door, the College of Medicine’s new $44 million-Medical Research building in Tucson has each floor dedicated to a different disease, from cancer to diabetes.
Election turnout breaks records at UA
In a time when college students are chastised for having poor voter turnout at the polls, UA students boasted the highest turnout for an early polling station in Pima County.
Although the 362 votes landed the UA as the top early polling site, nationally, there was also an increase in youth voters. Two million more people in the 18- to 24-year-old demographic voted in November’s election than the 2002 midterm election.
The Arizona Student Vote coalition registered more than 4,000 students to vote statewide.
But many students said the issues were what drew them to the polls this year, including a slew of proposition pertaining to illegal immigrants, a smoking ban and a proposition to ban domestic partnership benefits.
Prominent political figures from across the nation, including President Clinton, visited Tucson in an effort to send voters to the polls.
The UA campus was also a hotbed for political activity.
Southern Arizona’s only gubernatorial debate with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, Republican candidate Len Munsil and Libertarian candidate Barry Hess was held in the Student Union Memorial Center, and former President Peter Likins led a rally against Proposition 107.
