What is the economic forecast for your industry?
Public universities across the country have suffered severe budget cuts, making it more difficult to provide quality education without tuition increases. Arizona’s three universities have done an excellent job streamlining their operations without loss of academic quality. The demand for higher education has never been greater, and it comes at a time when higher education is vital to our economic health. Without innovation, new industries and a work-force suited to the knowledge economy, America’s position as the world’s leading economic power will erode.
Why does your company support economic development?
It is commonly understood that roads, airports and ports are part of an economy’s infrastructure. But in a modern economy, research universities may well be the most important part of that infrastructure. Most of the economic progress the United States has made since World War II has been through the research and technological transfer efforts of our research universities.
What is your company/industry doing to make Tucson a better place to live?
ASU currently offers educational programs in Tucson in social work and nonprofit management. We are also producing a large number of qualified teachers and nurses to serve the entire state, and we have recently joined TREO in the hope of assisting economic development efforts for the Tucson region.
What are key issues this region needs to address and how can they be supported?
The Tucson region and Arizona in general have many assets. The two issues I think are most important to address are
the lack of diversity in our economy, including the shortage of high-tech companies, and the underutilization of college graduates in the local workforce. That issue trickles down to K-12 education where we need to do a better job of getting youths into the college pipeline. ASU, UA and NAU are working on these issues through research, spawning new companies, and creating programs designed to improve K-12 education.
How do you envision Tucson 10 years from now?
Ten years from now I hope to see a thriving and highly effective Sun Corridor with Tucson at one end and Phoenix at the other. The real economic competition isn’t between Southern and Central Arizona or even between Arizona and Texas or California. We are in a global economy in which regional cooperation is vitally important to our mutual success.