MEMO to Campus

Dear Colleagues:

As we strive to strengthen our university, we are confronted with continuing declines in state revenues, which translate into cuts in our state budget.  As with other public universities across the nations, The University of Arizona will likely face a similar budget cut next year.  We have all been sorely challenged to meet our financial commitments.

Given the challenges we face, we cannot continue to do business as usual. We need to think more strategically about our priorities and develop ways to make fuller use of our resources to meet our obligations. As President Shelton said “the status quo will no longer work …the time has come to take bold action” (campus letter, September 3, 2008).  We need to transform our programs and procedures to be stronger and better.  To achieve this goal, we must rethink how we teach, hire faculty, and allocate resources.

At the direction of President Shelton, we have initiated The University of Arizona Transformation Plan to strengthen our scholarship, research, and teaching, and to identify financial savings.  The Transformation Plan will require reorganization, restructuring, and the consolidation of departments and units within colleges, and potentially across colleges.  Proposals for reorganization may be submitted by college deans or department heads or directors. The transformation process will require broad discussions among faculty, department heads, and deans as well as staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and our external constituencies.

The embedded links will direct you to documents that outline the process and timeline for The University of Arizona Transformation Plan and that provide guidelines for the process for reorganziation (SPBAC Recommended Guidelines for Academic Program Prioritization (PDF), and the Guidelines for Reorganization Proposals from the Faculty Senate (PDF).

If we approach this process with the same creative and rigorous modes of scholarly inquiry that have made us a world-class university, we will be able to work together to achieve our shared goal of strengthening the university by improving our effectiveness.

I look forward to considering your ideas for how we can best address the challenges we face.

Meredith Hay