Citizen Staff Writer
RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON
rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com
University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton will deliver his second State of the University address at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
The address will include an appraisal of UA’s achievements over the past year. Shelton will also discuss the short-term and long-term future of the university, according to a UA media release.
Shelton has said he may use the State of the University address to explain UA’s financial challenges to alumni, donors, policymakers and members of the Tucson community.
In his first State of the University address last year, Shelton unveiled UA’s Arizona Assurance program.
Arizona Assurance offers an all-expenses-paid, four-year education to qualifying in-state students from families with an annual income of up to $42,400.
There are about 600 students in the Arizona Assurance program this year. It was funded by reallocating some of UA’s merit-based financial aid.
In August, the UA Foundation hired Edith S. Auslander, Shelton’s former senior associate, to run Arizona Assurance. Her job is to get the program funded by donors. Shelton hinted this fall that he hoped to announce extensive gifts to the program by December.
The State of the University address will be broadcast live online and televised several times throughout November.
The event will begin with a luncheon in the Irving and Rose Levine Grand Ballroom in UA’s Student Union Memorial Center.
To watch Shelton’s speech live, go to Arizona Public Media at ondemand.azpm.org/live.
The UA Channel – Cox Channel 116 and Comcast Channel 76 – will rebroadcast the speech at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 6 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday.