UA president offers new funding ideas

University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton has said it before and he said it again Tuesday in his first State of the University address: UA will be one of the top 10 public research universities in the nation.

Getting there will require that the state Legislature re-examine how it funds higher education, he said.

After detailing highlights of his first 16 months leading UA, Shelton told a luncheon crowd of more than 600 he wants the Legislature to create a "competitive investment fund that would provide matching funds" for research grants brought in by university faculty members.

The matching funds would help stem the faculty brain drain the university has experienced in the past few years due to lower-than-average salaries and potentially draw millions of dollars to Arizona in research grants.

"By providing matching dollars for exceptionally large external grants - and by that I mean millions of dollars per year - the state can leverage the extraordinary work that our faculty do to bring in extramural funding," he said.

Shelton said state funding is based on quantity and does not reward quality.

Typically, the state funding formula allows for hiring faculty and staff based on the number of students at the university.

He wants that to change, saying ". . . we need the state to recognize (the university's) unique role by providing a funding formula that allows us to compete for state support."

"This is a return on investment," Shelton said in an interview after the speech. "Legislators are very interested in understanding how we can help them serve the state with fewer dollars and this is one way the state can incentivize universities to go after funds."

During the speech, Shelton said it is detrimental to the state when faculty members leave to higher-paying institutions because they take with them "tens of millions of dollars in research grants and dozens of jobs that those grants supported."

"The state of Arizona cannot afford to let that trend continue," he said.

Shelton gave an example of the intensity of competition by describing a recent $113 million donation to the University of California at Berkeley that endowed 100 faculty chairs.

"We are not going to be able to deal with that level of competition if we don't get the state to take immediate steps to make our faculty salaries more competitive," he said.

Shelton said he wants to lobby the private sector to create "an endowed professorship incentive fund" that would provide matching funds to private donations of at least $1 million to create endowed faculty chairs.

Shelton said UA must put more emphasis on need-based financial aid to make UA accessible "to all qualified students."

He told UA's financial aid office to create "The Arizona Assurance," which will begin next fall and be directed toward the most financially needy Arizona students.

It will be "a great leap forward" in generating the educated residents and workforce Arizona requires, Shelton said, "but only if the state and private donors step to the plate to support this program."

Shelton mentioned other goals, including increased funding for construction of research facilities, classrooms and performance spaces, and diligence in ensuring diversity in the faculty.

All of his goals, Shelton said, stem from his "No. 1 priority" for UA - putting people first.

"It is people who make a university great," he said, "and we must do all that we can to see that everyone who is a part of this university family has the chance to succeed, because that is how the institution will succeed."

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Other highlights from UA President Robert N. Shelton's first 16 months in office, outlined in his State of the University address:

*Applications for the 2007-08 academic year rose by 25 percent.

* Enrolled the largest freshman class in the history of UA; nearly 6,000 students.

* The number of National Hispanic Scholars rose from 49 to 72.

* The National Science Foundation ranked UA first in the nation for the study of physical sciences.

* UA now ranks 13th among all public universities.

* UA is home to the world's premier museum on Southwestern culture, the top modern poetry center in the country and one of the nation's leading dance programs.