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Arizona must not eat its young
by James M. Gentile
I listened with pride last week as students, faculty and community leaders raised their voices in a shared concern about the future of higher education in our state. I now add my voice to theirs.
While budget adjustments at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University are necessary given the economic downturn, it's imperative that the details be left to the leadership within the universities, rather than to legislative micromanagers who lack a sense of the local (and, frankly, statewide) educational ecology.
Furthermore, the proportionate size of those budgetary adjustments must never reflect the thinking that our universities are an "easy target." Rather, adjustments must reflect the mission and purpose of higher education in Arizona.
As a former academic dean, I believe that a key mission of institutions of higher learning is to build the human infrastructure for our state and, indeed, for our entire nation.
In the landmark publication from the National Academies of Sciences, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future," our nation was challenged to meet the growing issues of higher education (particularly in science and technology) head-on, so as to keep America competitive in the new global - increasingly high-tech - economy.
The recommendations made there are vitally important and directly on target in today's debate in Arizona.
Recently it was my privilege to serve on the National Science Board Commission on Higher Education, which was charged with coming up with ways to implement the recommendations made in "Gathering Storm." Our efforts resulted in a national plan, which was released in late 2007, for addressing the critical needs of the U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics education system.
It called for a "shovel-ready" educational response by states.
With the education mandates coming from the new Obama administration, many national leaders, and many state governors, are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, even in the midst of a deteriorating economy. That excitement comes primarily from states where the legislative leadership sees beyond the crisis of the moment and recognizes opportunity for stimulating economic growth within the state from the very human infrastructure (students and faculty) that the state of Arizona now apparently intends to undermine.
Our Legislators must make a decision, and an important one. Is our state going to be "shovel- ready," or is ours shovel broken?
At this moment I think it is broken, and that could be a human and economic tragedy of epic proportions. Undermining students and dismantling universities is much like "eating our young."
One does not have to subscribe to Darwinian thought to understand that fragile populations that eat their young for the expediency of the moment very rapidly go extinct. Arizona must not allow this to happen.
In 2012, Arizona will be 100 years old. Our centennial will be a time of celebration, or a time of mourning. The decisions made today will perhaps be the most important for our state in its first 100 years of existence.
(This article appeared in the January 27, 2009, Arizona Daily Star opinion pages.)
James M. Gentile is president and CEO of the private, Tucson-based Research Corporation for Science Advancement, America's second-oldest foundation and the first dedicated wholly to science.