The Arizona Board of Regents will meet Thursday to discuss the University of Arizonaโs continuing to fall far short of required daysโ worth of cash on hand; a proposed policy to bar student groups from supporting โforeign terrorist organizationsโ; new rules in college athletics; and other issues.
Hereโs what to know about the packed agenda for the special meeting in Tempe, announced Tuesday:
UA finances
Agenda materials show the UA is estimating its daysโ worth of cash on hand is down, which could be concerning since that is typically how ABOR measures financial success. It was an issue with cash on hand last year that alerted the UA to what its president Robert C. Robbins described as a financial crisis โ a miscalculation and a budget deficit now estimated to be $163 million.
The fiscal year 2024 estimate is 76 days cash on hand, and fiscal year 2025 is estimated to hit a low of 70 days cash on hand. The university is supposed to have at least 140 daysโ worth of cash on hand, according to ABOR standards. In November, when Robbins told the regents about the financial crisis, UA had an estimated 97 daysโ worth of cash on hand.
UAโs presentation in the agenda materials notes the information is an โinitial projection of snapshot to be taken June 30, 2025, and based on Q3 activity to date.โ
The update comes as the stateโs three public universities are scheduled to provide brief overviews Thursday of the planning assumptions used to build their budget requests, which will be submitted to ABOR in late June.
UA is projecting moderate enrollment growth. It expects an increase of 175 on-campus students and 2,225 distance-learning and global students. The university also expects an increase of 1,200 students in its online programs.
It is also โprojecting very modest increasesโ in grants and contracts, by $9.7 million or 1%.
The university is โprojecting to hold fast on expendituresโ of salary and benefits, infrastructure and โnew initiatives.โ
Current unknowns, according to the university, include potential impacts of the state budget on new economy initiatives, the promise program (Arizonaโs guaranteed scholarship program), and Arizona Teachers Academy.
Foreign terrorist organizations
ABORโs university governance and operations committee is set to discuss a potential new policy for the stateโs three public universities titled โProhibition on Support for Foreign Terrorist Organizations by Student Groups and Organizations.โ
โBeginning last year, political events have led to a nationwide rise of allegations of both discrimination and harassment and support to foreign terrorist organizations that are calling for discrimination, harassment and even genocide of people worldwide,โ the agenda reads.
ABORโs proposed policy states that all students, including those who are โperceived to be Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab or Palestinian, must be provided a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color or national origin, including shared ancestry.โ
Board policy would, if approved, prohibit student groups from โknowingly (providing) material support to a designated terrorist organization.โ They could not call for violence and/or genocide against any individual group and โengage in or promote in person or in any other medium, including but not limited to social media, threats of genocide or harm against any student based on their race, color, national origin or shared ancestry.โ
This comes on the heels of student-led pro-Palestinian encampments at all three state universities this spring.
Student groups or organizations that violate the proposed policy โmay face sanctions that include revocation of the use of university facilities for a definite period of time or denial of recognition or registration, as well as other appropriate sanctions, permitted under the code of conduct.โ
The policy, however, is โnot intended to prohibit any expressive activity that is protected by the First Amendment.โ
Changes in athletics rules
The boardโs strategic initiatives and planning committee is set to hear a presentation from Brett Yormark, commissioner of the Big 12 conference, on โcurrent changes in college sports including elements related to professionalization.โ
After Yormarkโs presentation, the committee will โdiscuss the information and issues shaping the future of college sports and the strategic implications for the stateโs public universities.โ
UA and Arizona State University are both joining the Big 12 conference this year. Additionally, after the NCAA and its five power conferences voted to approve settlement terms for three landmark antitrust cases involving student-athlete compensation, UA is expected to figure out how to pay about $20 million annually to its athletes in future seasons.
For context, that represents nearly 15% of Arizonaโs annual athletics budget.
New majors, programs
UA is proposing a number of new majors and programs. It also seeks to establish a new academic organizational unit.
The unit proposed is a new School of Global Studies within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It would include the โrelocationโ of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, the Centers for Latin American Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, gender and womenโs studies, the global studies program, the human rights practice program, Middle Eastern and North African studies and the Southwest Center.
The new school would partially โaddress the $2.8 million structural year-over-year deficit across these small units.โ
The university is also asking to add eight new programs in the fall 2024 academic semester. Those are a bachelor of science in real estate, a bachelor of arts in molecular and cellular biology, a bachelor of science in nursing in collaborative nursing education, a master of science and PhD in computer science and engineering, a master of arts in sport and recreation leadership, a bachelor of science in nutrition and dietetics, a bachelor of science in nutrition and wellness, and a bachelor of arts and science in justice and global security.
UA also seeks approval to add masterโs of science in marriage family therapy and in midwifery for the fall 2025 semester.
โEach of these new programs has been fully accounted for in the universityโs (fiscal year) 2025 budgets,โ says UAโs proposal. โThe programs included in this submission make extensive use of existing faculty and courses, and the university is confident they will have strong enrollments.โ
The UA is also โdisestablishingโ 14 majors, eight minors, 16 certificates and 13 emphases โas part of the universityโs effort to update curricula and mitigate financial issues,โ according to the proposal.
Details of those program cuts were not provided.