At the end of President Robert Shelton’s first year enrollment at the University of Arizona is up, national recognition continues to grow, appropriations are climbing and research is spreading.

In his first "State of the University" speech Nov. 6, Shelton talked of the things that have gone well for the UA:

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ân¶ The freshman class grew by 600 students.

ân¶ National Hispanic Scholars now number 72 students, up from 49.

ân¶ The UA climbed to 13^th in research expenditures, $530 million.

ân¶ The UA took over operations of the Biosphere 2, which costs just $100 per year.

ân¶ The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory are leading the way to Mars with the headquarters for the NASA mission on campus.

ân¶ Appropriations from both private and state sources are up 13.7 percent.

With the successes of the first year behind him, Shelton quickly moved on to talk about his priorities for the future.

"We must put people first," he said. "It is people who make a university great. Our focus must always be on servicing our students and supporting our faculty, professionals and staff."

Shelton said one thing that must be addressed first is faculty salaries.

"If we can’t retain those faculty, we can’t attract the research funding that leads to new discoveries, drives our economy and improves our lives," he said.

The budget he proposed to the regents requests $13.6 million in new funds to address a critical and immediate need for faculty salary adjustments.

"The salary gap between the UA and our peer institutions is much too wide," he said. "Our request to the state, which is for a 7 percent increase, would bring us to the mid-point compared with our peer institutions."

Shelton also said there must be new emphasis put on need-based financial aid to make the UA more accessible. Because of this, the UA is launching a new program called Arizona Assurance in the fall of 2008.

"This program is aimed at supporting students most in need, and would assure them that they could attend the University of Arizona free from the burden of tuition and fees," he said.

Shelton also stressed the importance of more private giving to the UA in the future.

"This past year we had one of our best years ever for fundraising, attracting more then $143 million in support." A 19 percent increase over the previous year. "But compared with our peer institutions, the U of A’s endowment is small, and we must make the growth of the endowment one of our major priorities."

Of all the places he has worked in the past nearly 30 years, Shelton said the UA has some of the greatest portential.

"We will be one of the 10 best public research universities in America. We will improve the human condition of Arizonans. We will put people first and quality will be our hallmark," he said.