As part of a strategic plan to further develop the university system, the Arizona Board of Regents is calling on university presidents to transform higher education to better serve the people of Arizona.
Regents outlined the main goals of the transformation during their board meeting last week. The goals include lower cost options for students seeking baccalaureate degrees, major research activities at the universities’ main campuses, expanded partnerships with community colleges and a new state funding model to fit the revised university system.
“It’s something of an evolution,” ABOR President Fred Boice said. “[We will] try to reorganize within each university to be more efficient in the education of students and the services provided to the state.”
The board assigned the task to the university presidents because they are the state’s education professionals, Boice said, and they can best identify what their universities are capable of doing in the future.
Boice would not say what he expects to see from the presidents, saying he did not want to affect the results.
He did say, however, that he supported discussions to transform campuses like ASU’s West campus or UA South to provide basic bachelor’s degrees at less expense to students.
No one at ASU was available to comment by deadline on the University’s plans for transformation.
The three presidents will meet with ABOR Executive Director Joel Sideman to create the plan, which should be ready to present to the board by June. Boice said he expects to see an interim report in the next 30 to 45 days.
Regents initiated the call to university presidents after a study session in last week’s board meeting, where the presidents detailed everything they’ve done to manage budget cuts this year.
The cuts have restricted the universities’ ability to achieve their strategic goals, Boice said, but re-engineering the universities will justify the state’s investment in higher education after the recession.
Regent Robert McLendon said during the study session that the regents and universities must look past the recession and figure out how to emerge even stronger than they are today.
“We are becoming leaner and meaner — but meaner in a good way,” he said.
McLendon said he talked with the university provosts before last week’s meeting about how their schools are performing given the budget cuts.
“I asked the question, ‘Are we performing better than we were?’ And the answer was yes,” he said.
A March 12 ABOR press release said the transformation plan is part of the board’s 2020 Vision plan to bring Arizona’s universities to national competitiveness in education over the next 12 years.
Because part of the vision includes delivering more degrees at a lower cost, the transformation will be key to reaching the overall goal, according to the statement.
Regent Fred Duval said in the statement that all barriers to university access must be eliminated for the system to move forward.
“As a system, we are experiencing forces that both compel and provide the Arizona Board of Regents with the opportunity to chart a bold new path for the future,” he said.
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.
