College of Engineering and Applied Science

The African American Advisory Council would want to insure that Transformations processes including consolidations and workforce reductions would not erode The University of Arizona's efforts to recruit and retain diverse faculty, students, and staff.

There is a college on our University campus that consists of four virtual departments, (a) Photonics, (b) Optical Engineering, (c) Imaging and (d) Quantum Optics. Each one of these entities is composed of highly creative professors who share a strong common interest within their own virtual department yet collaborate effectively with each of the other three areas. None of these virtual departments maintains its own administration but rather share a common administrative body. This college goes by the name of The College of Optical Sciences, a name whose trademark is recognized around the world as a premier academic organization. The organizational structure of this college fits all the criteria set by President Shelton that require optimization of administrative resources among departments together with improvement in academic achievements that include teaching, research and granting support. The College continuously strives to raise its academic standards by growing its body of faculty and students, by increasing its non-state financial support, and by increasing the already large number of collaborators across our campus, across campuses at other universities, government labs and companies. I believe that any restructuring of our college by either integrating it into another college, institute or any similar entity will have a strong adverse effect on its operation and, consequently, on the academic quality of our university. Such an act will be conceived by our piers as a practical demotion of the our college, resulting in the following effects which may include, among others, • Desertion of highly effective faculty • Decrease in the effectiveness of generating outside grants • Diminishing the success of recruiting top-notch students • Encumbrance of unnecessary and expensive administrative layers I therefore urge President Shelton and Provost Hay to preserve the present structure of the College of Optical Sciences, a college which will continue to serve as one of the highlights of our University. Please note that we can survive another budget cut but we will not survive if forced to merge into another college. Signed by most faculty of the College of Optical Sciences

The UA President’s Hispanic Advisory Council (HAC) is pleased to provide its evaluation of this White Paper/Proposal, with the specific goal of relating it to the joint UA/HAC goals concerning diversity and inclusion, recruitment, retention and graduation of Hispanic students and faculty, and on meeting the UA goal of becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution by 2012. Additional criteria used when reviewing this proposal include the following: UA’s land grant institution status and thus its location in the southwest and the changing demographics of this area; innovative program design, including instruction methodologies; and whether the proposal realistically addresses the UA’s business needs. HAC’s mission it to strengthen relationships between the UA and the diverse communities within the State of Arizona by serving as a communications conduit and developing mutually beneficial partnerships.

HAC has reviewed this proposal and rates this as:

A Quality Proposal - this proposal should move forward and be further developed addressing the Hispanic Advisory Council criteria.