College of Applied Science and Technology, New Economy Initiative on ABOR Agenda

The University of Arizona is seeking approval to rename UA South to the College of Applied Science and Technology at this week's Arizona Board of Regents meeting at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Established as an official branch campus in 1995, UA South has sought to extend the University's educational mission to people living in Sierra Vista and the surrounding communities with targeted degree programs.

In recent years, UA South has become one of the world's leaders in cybersecurity and cyberoperations education. The program, which began in January 2017, has now firmly established itself as an industry standard. In May 2018, UA South became one of 20 programs to be recognized by the National Security Agency for teaching specialized cyberops technologies and techniques with official designation as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations. In June, the UA was awarded $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency to create the country's first Bachelor of Applied Science in intelligence and information operations.

The proposed name change highlights the campus' strengths in cyberoperations and applied science, which includes bachelor's programs in administration of justice, early childhood education, human services, informatics, intelligence studies, meteorology and network operations.

In a special meeting held Sept. 5 meeting, the Arizona Board of Regents outlined a proposal for a $165 million state budget request, called "New Economic Initiative: Enhancing Arizona's Competitiveness," with the goal of preparing students for the state's evolving economy.

Under the proposal, the UA would receive nearly $32 million in workforce development funding, with $23.3 million going to UA Health Sciences to bolster efforts related to economic and workforce development. Additionally, UA Health Sciences seeks to establish itself as the nationally preferred partner for data storage and analytics across the global health care ecosystem. The rest of the workforce development budget request – $8.6 million – would go toward space exploration and development, and national defense research. The university system budget request also includes additional funding for student financial aid, distributed learning centers, new industry research competitiveness grants and the Arizona Teachers Academy.

Other items on this week's agenda (PDF):

• The UA seeks approval for several additions and amendments to its 2021-2023 Capital Improvement Plan, including $42 million in renovations to the Chemistry building and $20 million for the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
• The board will hear a presentation on workforce development and the role that the state's three public universities play.
• The UA will ask the board to approve the purchase of a commercial property located at 10900 N. Stallard Place, Oro Valley, Arizona, for $4.4 million. The property is intended for use by the College of Veterinary Medicine.