Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 12

OESIAVAILABLE-CW- A12 Arizona Daily Star Saturday, March 30, 2002 West i ess? Botiom line type' Crow wiM head ASU 'i 7s because of the president's role in dealing adroitly with lawmakers, government officials, business leaders, university donors, faculty and students. Regent Chris Her-stam, who served on the 35-member search committee that endorsed Crow's candidacy, said he thinks Crow Columbia official to make salary of $468,394 a year THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX The Arizona Board of Regents named Michael M. Crow the 16th president of Arizona State University on Friday. Crow, the executive vice provost at Columbia University, accepted a compensation package that includes a state-funded salary of $468,394 a year, said Matt Ortega, the board's He graduated with a degree in politi-cal science and environmental studies, then moved on to Syracuse University, where he earned a doctorate in public administration. Crow has worked at Columbia University since 1992.

"He has beeii a great colleague, and his contributions to the university, especially in environmental studies, science policy and digital learning technologies, will be felt at Columbia for many years to come," Columbia President George Rupp said Friday in a statement "He will be greatly missed here at Columbia, but I wish him great success in this new endeavor." ASU is Arizona's largest university, with 52,759 undergraduates and 12,478 graduate students. boundaries when it comes to their future," he said. "And he is willing to think in a dynamic, conceptual mode, and to implement accordingly." Crow has been doing that for better than half his life, which began in San Diego on Oct 11, 1955. He lived in at least five states while growing up as his father moved the family for his mil-itary career. Against his father's wishes, he chose Iowa State University over military academies and embarked on an educational journey that he says shaped him in a lot of ways.

"It taught me that teaching and research can go on at the same time," Crow said. "It taught me that you needed to think across disciplines to really solve problems." "Arizona is one of the fastest-growing regions in North America, and Arizona State University has a tremendous desire to build a new type of relationship with society at large," Crow said. "I feel very excited about being able to help Arizona State construct that kind of university in an emerging region." Lattie Coor, ASU's president who retires June 30, makes $322,000. Crow, 46, will take office July 1 and will work part time until Sept. 1.

ASU Provost Milton Glick will fill in as president as Crow travels between New York and Arizona, Ortega said. The committee began its search last fall with a list of 75 possible successors to Coor. Regents consider the position vital Michael Crow addresses the regents at a special meeting on Friday at ASU. is the kind of fearless leader ASU needs. "He's a bottom-line-type guy, and I find that very appealing.

He's made it very clear that ASU really has no Party liliesmembcrs only" principle for primaries libertarians push to restrict ballots 'V I 2 I Photos by Jeffry Scott Arizona Daily Star In the name of the party: Sens. John tind Jon Kyi, center, and Rep. Jim Kolbe presented a united front at Tucson Republican Junctions Thursday. Geiger to quit school building program Hull had demanded he curb outside work By Paul Davenport THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENK The head of the state's school building program resigned Friday, effective May 3, rather than curtail consulting and other non-state business activities as demanded by Gov. Jane Hull.

"If they're uncomfortable with this, which they clearly are, then I will resign because I have other things that I can move on to," Phil Geiger said in an interview before he submitted his resignation letter toHull. Geiger, executive director of the School Facilities Board, said he always tended to return to the private sector after Hull leaves office in January and that ending his outside involvements would Phil Geiger resigns position. hamper his abil-itytodothat. "I'm here to do public service as they requested," Geiger said. "I've done it but I'm not going to jeopardize my family or my career in the process." Hull gave Geiger an ultimatum in a March letter, requiring him to divest himself of any consulting work or other outside interest that might relate to educatioa "It is imperative in state government that the management of public monies and our decisions be above even a perception of impropriety," Hull said in her letter.

contract held up Hull's March 18 letter was reported Friday by the East Valley Tribune. The Tribune reported that Hull initially became upset with Geiger last summer when her office learned that a $27.9 million Facilities Board, contract for computer software was being held up because of Geiger's service on an advisory board to Learning Station, a company that was a key player in the deal. Geiger had received several $1,000 honorariums from the company for past service on its advisory committee. The Attorney General's Office later concluded there was "insufficient evidence of a conflict of interest" but that the circumstances were troubling. Hull's letter came after a Hull aide learned that Geiger had signed applications for five Arizona charter schools.

Geiger said he has done paid consulting work for the company that would run the not-for-profit schools but that he would not be compensated for serving as president Board's responsibility The Facilities Board is responsible only for school districts' facilities, not those of charter schools. Geiger, a former executive for a charter school company, said he disqualified himself from any involvement in the grant program. Geiger was hired by Hull in 1999 to head the staff" of the Facilities Board. The agency oversees the Students First program created under the 1998 law to resolve a years-long political and legal battle over inequities in school building funding. 73 'Mi By Joe Salkowskl ARIZONA DAILY STAR Here's an odd political strategy: The Arizona Libertarian Party is suing for the right to stop people from voting for its candidates.

The party filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court challenging the state's open Political primary sys-NotebOOk tern, which re- quires parties to make their ballots available to independents and members of parties that haven't qualified for the statewide ballot. State party Chairman Peter Schmerl said Libertarians want to preserve their right to select their own nominees and party officers. "This is really an issue of principle," he said. Although independent voters aren't exactly clamoring to participate in the party's generally uncontested primaries, they have occasionally come close to outnumbering actual Libertarians at the polls, Schmerl said.

If they ever turned out in force, he said, they could dominate the party's elections. The lawsuit contends the law violates the constitutional right to free association embodied in the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Schmerl noted that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned California's open primary law two years ago, though that system wasn't identical to Arizona's. If the lawsuit, is successful, all state parties will regain the authority to restrict their primaries to their own members.

Ironically, Libertarians rolled out the red carpet for independents back in 1994, inviting them to participate in their party's primary well before the state's law took effect in 2000. And if the group wins its lawsuit, Schmerl said, party leaders may decide to keep the doors open anyway. "It's just something the state shouldn't have the right to force us to do," Schmerl said. Kyi, McCain bosom buddies U.S. Sens.

Jon Kyi and John McCain spread a message of party unity this week with a rare series of joint appearances before loyal Republican crowds. Arizona's two Republican senators, while unfailingly polite toward each other in public, aren't known for being particularly close. In fact, a few party activists who attended a Thursday morning rally at the Viscount Suite Hotel, 4855 E. Broadway, noted the novelty of seeing them share any room smaller than the Senate chamber. But they seemed to get along fa- Regional ARIZONA Forest burns delayed WILLIAMS Kaibab National Forest fire officials have delayed two slash-pile burns in the Williams Ranger District because of unseasonably dry fuel and weather conditions.

While the cold season is usually a good time to burn the piles of wood and foliage, fire managers determined that lack of precipitation this winter left ground fuels too dry to safely and effectively treat certain areas of the forest COLORADO Deer ailment Jumps Continental Divide DENVER A wild deer on an elk ranch near Craig has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the first time the disease has been found west of the Continental Divide in Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens said Friday. McCain autographs a campaign 2000 poster Mark Esparza at a GOP breakfast. of himself as a young fighter pilot for "This is a key election coming up," McCain said. "This is one of those election cycles that will probably to a large degree determine the political future of this state for a number of years." Taxpayers make small contributions As the parties raise money for this fall's elections, they shouldn't count on much help from state taxpayers.

Although Arizona's income tax forms offer the opportunity to contribute directly to political parties, that option is usually ignored. Even though taxpayers received approximately $900 million in refunds last year, they shared just $35,871 with the state's political parties. Republicans received $15,474 of those contributions, while Democrats collected $15,130. The money was even tighter for the Greens Libertarians ($2,422) and the Natural Law party The Reform Party brought up the rear with just $36 in contributions. Perhaps those parties should be grateful.

The little-known New Alliance Party hasn't received any taxpayer contributions since one generous soul contributed $5 back in 1998, said Jeff" Kros, a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue. I Contact Joe Salkowski at 573-4243'or atjoesazstarnet.com. the tribe has leased mining rights to Peabody for two strip mines in northeastern Arizona. During negotiations on a new contract in 1984, the Navajos sought 20 percent When talks hit a sticking point, a regional Bureau of Indian Affairs official was asked to intervene and ruled the tribe should get 20 percent But before the tribe was notified of the decision, Hodel met secretly with Peabody lobbyist and personal friend Stanley Hulett, then blocked the regional BIA official's decision. The tribe, in financial distress, eventually settled for 12.5 percent of gross proceeds.

In February 2000, a federal judge said Hodel's actions "betray the public trust and transgress the high ideals of public service" but ruled the tribe could not collect damages. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed last August sending the case back to the lower court and ordering it to award damages. The tribe is seeking $600 million. Bush wants court to overturn ruling on payment to Navajos mously. Kyi and McCain heaped praise upon each other, posed for pictures together and urged their fellow Republicans to be equally civil to each other during the upcoming primaries.

Briefing Owens said the future of the state's wild deer herd could be at stake. "Until now, one of our best weapons for containing the disease was the Continental Divide. Now that barrier has been broken." Chronic wasting disease is a contagious brain ailment that strikes elk and deer, causing them to grow thin and die. NEVADA Nuke protesters cited MERCURY Thirty-one peace activists were cited for trespassing and released after they staged their annual Good Friday rally at the Nevada Test Site. Forty-nine protesters from the Nevada Desert Experience gathered near the test site's entrance.

The group said it was protesting any future resumption of nuclear testing and the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. The Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON The Bush administration wants the Supreme Court to overturn a decision in a long-running contract dispute that could force the government to pay the Navajo Nation as much as $600 million. The tribe won a suit last August, when a federal appeals court ruled the government failed to protect the tribe's interest in leases on reservation land and was liable for damages. The Navajos claim that former Interior Secretary Donald Hodel secretly conspired with Peabody Coal Co. to undermine the tribe's contract negotiations with the company.

Forcing the government to pay damages in a case where the tribe negotiated the leases could set a dangerous precedent Solicitor General Ted Olson said. The Navajo Nation is the nation's largest reservation, sprawling over 25,000 square miles in parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Since 1964,.