Your Online ASU Legislative Connection
Volume 2 Issue 1

Dear ASU Advocate Friend,

Happy New Year to you!

This month’s newsletter is chock full of valuable information. The legislature is only into its third week and things are already heating up. It looks like things are shaping up to be a memorable legislative session. We encourage you to take some time and read carefully though this month’s newsletter. Please feel free to forward this to all your “Sun Devil” friends.

We’d like to offer belated congratulations to our Sun Devil football team for their victory over Purdue in last month’s Vitalis Sun Bowl. Next year, onto the Rose Bowl!!

We want you!! – Please join the Army!!

We will be facing a challenging legislative session and we’ll need your help to convince our 90 legislators of the importance of Arizona State University and higher education in general. This becomes painfully clear as you read about the budget recommendations from the executive and legislative branches.

808 members are great (our advocacy army is growing daily), but the more advocates we can recruit, the more powerful our voice will be at the state capitol. So please take a few minutes and e-mail or call folks you know and give them our web site address — www.sundeviladvocates.org — tell them you’re an advocate, explain to them what it means and tell them they too can become an advocate in three easy steps:

1.) Go to www.sundeviladvocates.org
2.) Click on the link “Become a Member.”
3.) Fill out the quick and easy form and in less than two minutes they’ll become an official member of the Sun Devil Advocacy Army.

FY 2006 Budget Recommendations

As recently reported in an article appearing in the Arizona Republic (“College Funding Requests clipped” – January 15, 2004) the executive budget recommendations did not include ASU’s entire request. ASU’s requested $388 million for the 2006 fiscal year. The governor recommends providing $358.1 million in funding for ASU, which equates to a $22 million increase over current year funding. The bulk of these additional dollars are dedicated for enrollment growth and rising pension costs.

ASU’s enrollment growth numbers are under what was requested. ASU asked for $16.7 million in growth money and was recommended to receive $10.8 million. ASU asked for $12.5 million to create a streamlined online system that would handle its growing enrollment. This proposal was not funded. Other new incentives also fell short of the amount requested. ASU asked for $8 million to create a bioinformatics department, a precursor to helping staff the Phoenix Biomedical Campus of the Arizona University System. The governor recommended $1 million. The governor also recommended a $500,000 investment in the university’s water initiative.

While there are countless priorities competing for the state’s limited resources, Governor Napolitano continues to make higher education funding a priority and continues to investment in the university system. While the Executive funding recommendations do not fully address the issues of enrollment growth or university expansion in general, Governor Napolitano remains steadfastly committed to the university system as a strategic asset of the state and we appreciate her support.

2006 Legislation

Several bills have been introduced this session that would negatively impact the university system. Of the bills introduced to date, the ones identified below are the most damaging to the university system. Please note that university lobbyists at the State Capitol are diligently working to ensure the defeat of these bills.

House Bill 2385 (community colleges; baccalaureate degrees) would permit community colleges in Arizona to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees starting in fiscal year 2007. The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) recently voted to oppose this legislation. The proposal is premature as the ABOR is still reviewing recommendations for the redesign of the state’s university system. Priorities of the redesign process include addressing system demands due to projected enrollment increases and statewide access assurances.

House Bill 2261 (universities; tuition monies; scholarships; prohibition) would prohibit the use of tuition, fees or other money collected from one student to pay for tuition or assistance for another student. One of the largest challenges facing higher education in Arizona is the lack of financial aid available for students. One of the primary sources of Arizona’s financial aid for needy and meritorious students is tuition revenue. The recent tuition increases, which incidentally were supported by student leaders, have significantly enhanced financial aid programs. The proposed legislation would eliminate the use of tuition monies for financial aid and destroy the university’s financial aid programs.

Senate Bill 1241 (universities; faculty powers) would grant the faculty of each state university campus the right to determine its own faculty organizational structure and to select representatives to participate in institutional governance. This proposal would undermine the current university organizational structures and reduce the authority of the university presidents.

ASU Day at the Capitol — February 21, 2005

On February 21st, the ASU Alumni Association is hosting the twenty-second annual Legislative Picnic at Wesley Bolin Plaza, across the street from the State Capitol Buildings Complex. In conjunction with this event, we are hosting the second annual ASU Statehood Day at the Capitol. This event is a great chance for ASU students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff and friends to advocate for ASU and interact with legislators. We are building on last year’s success and we need you to help us by communicating ASU’s budget priorities to the state Senate and House members.

Although ASU continues to be entrepreneurial in its efforts to develop alternative revenue sources for its campuses, as a public institution, ASU still requires its major investor - the State of Arizona - to fund its core operating expenses.

This year’s budget priorities are intended to help cover these expenses. An essential component of the request is an allotment for enrollment growth to preserve access to ASU for qualified students. Another key facet of the budget request is first-year funding for ATLAS, a University-wide information technology system that will enhance student learning and support.

In order to stress the importance of this request, we would like to invite you to meet with your legislators for a few minutes on February 21st. Anyone who is interested in the future of ASU is welcome to attend; no university affiliation is necessary. Also, no previous experience or knowledge of the budget is necessary. As a volunteer, you will be asked to attend one of three training sessions in which you will learn about the core budget request and effective methods for conveying the information.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Grant Klinzman our Legislative Event Coordinator at 480-965-4282 or via email at: grant.Klinzman@asu.edu.

This is worth repeating--ASU E-mail Accounts –VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

For our advocates who are currently registered with an “asu.edu” e-mail account, you will need to update your contact information and use an alternate e-mail address by going to this link:

http://capwiz.com/azsu/mlm/

Once there, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address and hit the “Go” button. From there, you’ll be able to enter another email address (home, personal or alternate) and thus be able to send email messages to your legislators during the upcoming legislative session.

ASU strictly prohibits the use of their property for personal use—including the use of university e-mail accounts. To read more on the policy please access: www.asu.edu/counsel/brief/political.html.

If you do not have an alternate e-mail address, there are many free e-mail providers in which you can subscribe to. Some of these include Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) or Mail (www.mail.com).

Closing thoughts

We would like to thank you for taking the time to read through this month’s newsletter. As you can see from the information provided, we need your help to get our message out. Once the legislative session progresses, we will be periodically sending out “action alerts” to members of the networks. These alerts will be asking our members to contact their legislators. The process is very simple and extremely user friendly and should take no more than 1-2 minutes.

As in our past newsletters, we want to thank you for your signing up to be a Sun Devil Advocate. If you have any suggestions, comments or observations you would like to share with us, just click on this link advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org and let us know.

Jeff Grant, Director of Advocacy
ASU Alumni Association

P.S. If you want to become an active member of the ASU Alumni Association, one of the best ways you can give back is through membership in the ASU Alumni Association. The annual dues of $45 offer an affordable way to help build ASU’s reputation. Visit www.asu.edu/alumni/membership or call 1-800-ALUMNUS.

P.S.S. If you have a different e-mail address you would prefer us to use, just e-mail us at advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org with your new e-mail address and we’ll make the change.

If you don’t want to receive further issues of this electronic newsletter, send an unsubscribe e-mail to advoteam@sundeviladvocates.org with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and the message field.