News that University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart will not seek renewal of her contract is getting mixed reactions on the Tucson campus.
Even though campus activity is pretty slow in the summer, some students stick around to earn some credit toward their academic careers.
Graduate student Liz Bondy is spending her summer months in an air conditioned entomology lab. She is studying bacteria that may affect insect breeding. She is also pondering the impact of a new president in the next year or two.
She described a change in leadership as "a gamble," she said this week it could have benefits.
On one hand, Hart has been an advocate, Bondy said.
“We are suffering through funding cuts, and the president has done a lot of things to relieve us of this," she said. "I’m just choosing to be hopeful that the next president will try just as hard or even harder to get more funding.”
She was out in the heat this week, on her way to the library to use the 3-D printer to make artificial versions of mesquite beetles.
Meanwhile, undergraduate student Majd Almohassan was on a lunch break at the Student Union.
Almohassan signed up for two communications classes this summer so he can have a lighter course load next school year.
He said he was a little less certain what a change in leadership will mean.
"It depends on the upcoming, next president. I believe the university students as well as faculty will miss the president, but maybe change is good," he said.
As he reflected on it, Almohassan said most students don't have personal interactions with administrators.
“Not sure really if it would be a really huge impact," he said. "I don’t know if students really notice that we actually have a president.”
Andrea Kelly will explore the UA's future after Ann Weaver Hart in-depth on Metro Week, Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on PBS 6.
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