As the university scrambles to offer healthy raises to prized faculty, an increasing number of positions go unfilled to make up the costs.
Still, key researchers, and several million dollars of their federal grants, have left in the last few years.
Bruce Reade
As president of the UofA, John Schaefer began the university's push toward becoming a research powerhouse.
As president of the UofA, John Schaefer began the university's push toward becoming a research powerhouse.
Related Content
More About
"If that continues," Munsinger says, "it could have a profound effect on the university's financial health. Those grants are critical."
Growing university endowments have helped mitigate some of the financial instability. The market value of university endowments by 2000 was $285 million, more than double their 1994 value.
Still, the UofA ranks near the bottom among peer institutions in its endowment dollars. Ohio State, for example, has four times more endowment money.
The University of Arizona has also performed terribly in the amount of dollars earned selling the licenses and patents for work done at the university. Again, in this category, the university ranks last among peer institutions.
In 1999, for example, the UofA spent $320 million on research while bringing in $314,000 for licenses and patents, or less than $1 for every $1,000 it spent on research.
One of its peer institutions, Michigan State University, spent $207 million on research in 1999 and had licensing income of $24 million, or $115 for every $1,000 it spent on research.
ASU spent $60 million on research and brought in $1.3 million in licensing income, or $22 for every $1,000 it spent on research in 1999.
Cusanovich points out that those millions made by other universities typically come from "one or two home-run projects." The UofA hasn't yet produced a financially lucrative discovery, but, he says, there are several current university projects that show great promise of generating substantial income.
To be fair, some of the administrative problems have been addressed in recent years by subsequent university administrations. Institution-wide financial oversight has been reinstituted in some areas since 1991. The university's current president, Peter Likins, and his predecessor, Manuel Pacheco, quietly dismissed or reassigned several university administrators responsible for lax or irresponsible money management. Likins has also begun an aggressive campaign to bolster private donations to the university.
The university's technology transfer office has a new director charged with increasing the amount of patent dollars earned by the university and its professors.
And some of the university's departments continue to rank in the top 10 in several academic disciplines, including analytical chemistry, audiology, business management, creative writing, geology and higher-education administration, according to US News & World Report.
The UofA also moved up from 48th place to 44th place in the Report's rankings of national public universities.
Cusanovich argues that the aggressive push to build an upper echelon research institution has been only beneficial to the state and the university's students. Any financial problems, he says, can be traced to the actions of past Legislatures, not to university spending practices.
Of critical importance, he says: While the Legislature cut operational budgets at the university during the lean financial times of the early 1980s, those moneys were never returned when the economy improved.
"We are still spread ridiculously thin," he says.
A state allocation increase of $2,000 per student would bring Arizona closer into line with national averages for state spending. The $60 million infusion of cash would instantly stabilize the university's finances.
The other solution: Raise tuition, which presently is the second lowest in the country for state universities, he says.
"If we could get up to 37th or so, we'd be in good shape," he says. "That wouldn't be greedy, would it?"
If successful, President Peter Likins' campaign to raise a billion dollars in donations would "provide those alternative sources of income to help us weather these problems," Cusanovich says. Likins, however, recently had to suspend that campaign in a cost-cutting measure.
Still, others argue that to make real progress toward greatness, university officials must steer some attention away from research prestige and begin focusing again on the average student.
"We've seen where the university's priorities have been and we've seen the impact of that on education," says Carol Bernstein, president of the state chapter of the American Association of University Professors. "I just hope it doesn't have a crippling effect on the future of education in the state. Only time will tell."
