AZ Week Notebook
posted by Michael Chihak
History looks backward with the notion of preparing us to look forward. In the case of University of Arizona anthropologist Thomas E. Sheridan, that backward look in Arizona: A History includes some potentially frightening scenarios for the future.
Sheridan's history was published in 1995, and now with the statehood centennial approaching, he has updated the book, adding chapters on the state's most recent history -- its population boom and desert land consumption and economic development.
The forward look that he gives should cause the reader to pause and reflect on where our state is headed. Sheridan will discuss the state's prehistory, history and his view of its future on Arizona Week Friday at 8:30 p.m. on PBS-HD-6.
The new edition of Arizona: A History will be published by University of Arizona Press in time for Arizona's statehood centennial next February.
June 30th 2011 at 8:58 —
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posted by Michael Chihak
Arizona Week on Friday will focus on the state's legacy as manifest in its people and customs and in the plans and projects under way for statehood centennial next year.
Interviews for Friday's program will include:
-- Dora Vasquez, chair of the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission, which is reviewing proposals for Arizona Legacy Projects. They are described as projects that portray significant aspects of Arizona history, offer wide public wide access and sustainable beyond 2012.
-- Karen Churchard, director of the Arizona Centennial Commission, which is raising money for the celebrations and coordinating the planning of numerous activities statewide for the Feb. 14, 2012 anniversary.
-- Thomas Sheridan, a University of Arizona anthropologist who has written a history of the state and of Tucson's Mexican-American population in the 19th and 20th centuries.
-- Ned Norris, chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, descendants of the Pima people who have lived in Arizona the longest -- 4,000 years or more -- and whose ancient language gave Arizona its name.
June 28th 2011 at 11:21 —
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posted by Michael Chihak
By DIANA SOKOLOVA, Arizona Week intern
The Grand Canyon state is counting down the days till its 100th birthday. The official commemoration began in January 2011 with planning for celebrations all over the state.
Arizona was admitted to the union as the 48th state on Feb. 14, 1912.
The Arizona Centennial Commission, established by Gov. Jan Brewer, is planning and coordinating a wide range of festivals, events and projects.
Initially, $5.5 million was allocated from the state general fund for grants to organize communities’ celebration events, but it wasa cut because of the state's tough economic times.
The centennial commission is relying on private donations, sponsors and volunteers and hopes to get Arizona's 120 cities and towns, 15 counties and 22 Native American tribes involved.
Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott will participate in the "Arizona Best Fest," feature restaurants, wineries, microbreweries, local foods and traditional arts and crafts highlighting Arizona traditions and cultures.
Arizona Week will pursue interviews with Native American tribal leaders, a historian and the head of the centennial commission for Friday's program.
June 27th 2011 at 11:31 —
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posted by Michael Chihak
Total assets for the three foundations that support the state's three universities have seen increases in the last year, as the economy moves farther from the recession.
At the same time, they haven't come back to the contributions levels they were seeing before the recession hit.
At Northern Arizona University, foundation President Mason Gerety said fund-raising totaled $10 million in the last year and should hit $16 million in the coming year.
Similar increases, but on a bigger scale, were seen by both the Arizona State University Foundation and the University of Arizona Foundation.
All are working to shore up support for the universities as state funding continues to decline.
To assess the full picture, we will talk with Gerety and the heads of the ASU and UA foundations for Friday's Arizona Week.
June 22nd 2011 at 18:23 —
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posted by Michael Chihak
Friday's Arizona Week will explore fund-raising at the state's three public universities, where public funding has declined but the pressure remains to expand enrollment and programs.
Among issues to be explored:
-- What will Robert Shelton's departure as president of the University of Arizona mean for fund-raising at the Tucson school? Will donors draw back, waiting to see who the new leader will be?
-- Can Arizona State University, with total foundation assets of $700 million -- lower than the UA's but with enrollment half again as large -- catch up and bring in more money from its ever-expanding alumni base?
-- Will NAU, the smallest of the three schools in both enrollment and foundation assets, break the $100 million mark anytime soon? It's at $89 million in total assets now.
June 20th 2011 at 15:05 —
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posted by Michael Chihak
Can a straight-laced, seemingly mild-mannered physics professor find love and happiness in the high-fiving, good-old-boy world of big-time sports?
We’ll soon find out.
Robert Shelton will leave his perch as president of the University of Arizona this summer to become executive director of the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, his hometown.
That someone of Shelton’s stature is taking the lead of this scandal-tainted organization will put an even brighter spotlight on what had until this spring been a sports organization with a record of phenomenal success.
Shelton will be responsible for seeing that the success resumes after this year’s pause to get rid of a CEO who played fast and loose with the organization’s money. He handed it out in the form of questionable if not illegal political contributions, spent big chunks on high-roller entertaining and even threw himself a $30,000 birthday party.
Shelton at his introductory press conference this week didn’t want to dwell on all that, understandably, but rather insisted more than once that the Fiesta Bowl needs to move forward.
And move forward is what he is doing, from his situation of the last five years, caught between the Legislature and the regents on one side and the university community on the other during unprecedented budget cuts, academic program consolidations and record tuition increases.
Considering that scenario, this Fiesta Bowl gig should be as much fun as a Saturday night fraternity kegger.
And for it, he’ll get paid about the same as being a university president – nearly a half-million dollars a year.
But when one looks at the repairs needed to bring the Fiesta Bowl to back respectability among prudent people, maybe Shelton is getting short-changed.
June 17th 2011 at 17:47 —
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