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Senate hashes out ‘academic freedom’ By Tim McDonnell ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT By the end of the year’s first meeting of the Faculty Senate, academic policies were refined, faculty frustration was vented, and a student leader met a tough crowd. The senate opened its meeting last night with a moment of silence for professor of surgery Dr. Charles F. Zukoski, who recently died in a car accident. The quiet, however, did not last long. Faculty, administrators and students shared the floor, sometimes more peaceably than others, at the two-hour meeting, which covered a
range of issues from faculty inclusion in the UA transformation decisionmaking process, to the university’s imminent transition to a new information technology system. Time reserved at the beginning of the meeting for open comments from the floor was taken in part by professor of English John Warnock , who said he was dissatisfied with the administration’s decision to make funding allocations based on a department’s ability to bring in grant money, a method President Robert Shelton in recent statements has termed “differential funding.” This method, Warnock said, has left departments (like his own) that don’t
bring in grant money in the dust, while some departments that do less teaching have received more funding. “They didn’t choose to become educators,” he said. “We did.” Shelton acknowledged that differential funding has provided “an incentive to teach less” for some departments, as funding has been allocated less on enrollment or other student-based factors and more on individual faculty research, a trend that tends to favor the sciences over the humanities. As a few other senators raised similar concerns, Shelton responded by saying that the administration has made an effort to include faculty bod-
ies such as the Faculty Senate and the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee (which is meant to be a faculty consultation group on budget issues) in all decisions. Nevertheless, law professor Andrew Silverman said after the meeting that he and other faculty remained frustrated by what he perceived to be a dearth of faculty input. “I don’t know how the faculty was included,” he said. “I’m not sure the faculty was included.” The issue of faculty inclusion was raised again during discussion of a proposed new method for faculty to report their academic activity known as the Professional Evaluation Tool
BACK IN THE SWING
Sets, which in the past has been done on paper, but which may soon move online. As various faculty members voiced concerns and objections to the proposed system, professor of English John Ulreich said that whether the system would be useful or not, the main issue was that the system could be imposed on faculty without their consent. “We’re not voting on this, folks,” he said. “This is something that’s going to happen.” Also on the agenda was a proposal to define the term “academic FACULTY, page 5
Shelton: ‘I’m sure we’ll talk budget,’ at staff town hall-style meeting By Tim McDonnell ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT President Robert Shelton will participate in a town hall-style meeting today to talk about issues affecting UA staff. The meeting, hosted by the Classified Staff Advisory Council, will take place at 1 p.m. at the Gallagher Theater in the Student Union Memorial Center. The president will take questions from staff members on any number of subjects proposed at the meeting and beforehand online. Past meetings have focused on budget cuts, layoffs, staff inclusion in university decisionmaking and bridging the gap between staff and faculty. Shelton said he was unsure what kinds of questions might be asked today, but had one idea. “I’m sure we’ll talk budget,” he said. Staff members have had the chance to submit questions to the council’s Web site, and the list is already long. Check back tomorrow for coverage of the meeting.
Questions on the Classified Staff Advisory Council’s Web site the president may address: Kathy Kmonicek/NewsdayMCT
Taylor Dent of the USA fires a backhand return to Andy Murray of Great Britain during the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, September 6, 2009 in Flushing Meadows, New York. A career-ending injury almost affected former UA tennis coach Taylor Dent beyond just tennis. Now he’s not only back on the court, but making a name for himself at the highest level — again. See sports, page 7.
UA astronomers present ‘whole rest of the universe’ free of charge By Angel Allen ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Triangulum galaxies. Shooting stars. The birth of supernovas. Cracking Einstein’s Code. These topics and more will be revealed to lecture-goers in the semesterlong speaker series at Steward Observatory. A lecture last night, “A Study in Scarlet: The Spitzer Space Telescope View of the Triangulum Galaxy,” was presented by Dr. Joannah Hinz , senior research assistant in the infrared astronomy wing. The lecture focused on the Triangulum Galaxy, one of three spiral galaxies in our local galaxy group. The program, its directors say, aims to give everyone from old and seasoned astronomers to young and eager students with their first telescopes, a view of the universe’s expanse. Steward Observatory
has been hosting public, evening lectures on astronomy since 1922. Seven free lectures are scheduled for the fall semester, and all are held on every other Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Room N210 of the Steward Observatory. Following each lecture, the Raymond E. White Jr. Reflector in the historic Steward Observatory dome will be open for the public to view the night sky. Steward Observatory is paid for with taxpayer money and the lecture series is one way in which astronomers can give back to the public by sharing the exciting research they conduct, said Thomas Fleming , associate astronomer and senior lecturer at the observatory. “You really have no idea how big the universe is,” he said. “If you don’t look to the stars, you’re ignoring 99.9999 percent of the universe. ASTRONOMY, page 7
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Joannah Hinz, researcher at Steward Observatory, lectured on Monday about the discoveries of the Spitzer Space Telescope. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that a high-speed collision of this sort occurred a few thousand years ago around a young star, called HD 172555, still in the early stages of planet formation. The star is about 100 light-years from Earth.
• Are you planning to implement staff furloughs this semester? What about this Academic Year? • We just experienced an increase of over 50% on health insurance. Will this cost ever go down? • A while ago, we had heard something about 4 day work weeks and 10 hour days. Is that still a possibility for the near future? And if so, how will people with children in childcare get around the 10 hour daily maximum at most child care facilities? • With all the budget cuts and layoffs, why can’t we cut the salaries of the CIO’s and upper management and give the working people raises? Minimum wage has increased almost to the point of my wage, prices are skyrocketing. I work hard and my belt cannot get any tighter. • There are a number of areas of lush green grass on campus, and I often see the irrigation system on, even at the worst possible times (mid-day). If this irrigation is done with gray water, that is fine. If not, how can the University justify the use of this precious resource of water, particularly in light of the fact we live in the desert?