West Valley advocates are banding together to support an alternative to an Arizona Board of Regents' proposal some claim would transform ASU West from a research university to a "second-class institution."
MEChA de ASU West, a Latino student organization, presented a plan June 15 that would reorganize the university system while giving ASU West control over its own destiny.
The MEChA plan was written to counter a proposal drafted by ABOR President Chris Herstam and the three state university presidents that would create a two-tier university system. The ABOR proposal was first presented at a special meeting June 3.
Under the ABOR plan, ASU and UA would maintain their status as research universities. But NAU, ASU West, NAU-Yuma and UA-South would become regional universities, focusing on undergraduate education and teaching. A chancellor at each campus would report to a new Arizona Regional Universities president.
This plan would essentially turn ASU West into a "public liberal arts school," diverting the campus from its current research mission, said MEChA President Matt Whipple, an accounting junior.
The MEChA plan would let ASU West become an independent doctoral/research university.
Research at ASU West mostly involves social sciences, an important focus in a rapidly expanding area like the West side, Whipple said.
"I believe this University holds the key to the development of the West Valley," he said.
The MEChA proposal would also make each university campus directly accountable to ABOR. Instead of creating regional colleges, ABOR would work with the Arizona Alliance of Community Colleges to better serve undergraduates.
Demoting ASU West to regional status would prevent students from enjoying access to top-rate faculty, a competitive edge when applying for graduate school and a wide variety of lab and internship opportunities, said American studies professor Gloria Cuadraz.
These changes would be especially detrimental to the minority and first-generation college students the campus serves, said Jose Nanez Sr., an ASU West psychology professor.
"If we turn it into a second-tier university now, it will never recover," Nanez said.
ABOR's proposal is particularly unnerving because it was introduced less than a month after ASU President Michael Crow unveiled a plan to reorganize ASU's campuses. That plan did not indicate ASU West would be given regional status, Whipple added.
"Although [ASU administration] didn't have a special mission for us, they still wanted us to be part of the family. But they don't. They lied to us," Whipple said. "The West Valley needs leadership that is going to be concerned directly with the West Valley's interests."
Groups representing ASU West and the West Valley plan to lobby ABOR and the state legislature to examine the MEChA proposal. This effort will likely begin at an ABOR meeting at NAU on Thursday.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
