New year, new policy: the University of Arizona (UArizona) began paying for gender reassignment surgeries for both employees and their children on Jan. 1.
UArizona will cover up to $10,000 for these procedures through a newly established Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA): an employer-funded, tax-free health benefit that reimburses employees. Both employees and their dependents are eligible for the HRA.
The HRA would also cover fertility treatments, but only up to $2,500.
UArizona announced the reimbursement plan in the week after Thanksgiving. The HRA administrator is Navia Benefit Solutions, and offered through enrollment in the Arizona Department of Administration’s High-Deductible Health Plan or Triple Choice Plan.
The university has supported transgenderism openly over the past few decades. In 2013, UArizona lifted up a transgender former professor, Susan Stryker, who established their Transgender Studies Initiative.
Stryker retired, but is a visiting professor for Yale University, distinguished chair for Mills College, and co-editor for a Duke University Press book series on gender. Buzzfeed named Stryker as one of 24 individuals who radically reformed public perception of transgenderism.
The UA's Susan Stryker has been listed as an American who has changed the way we think about transgender rights: http://t.co/ciVVsElHgw.
UArizona also offers a “Gender Affirming Treatment” through their student health insurance plan, a benefit which is also available at Arizona State University (ASU) and Northern Arizona University (NAU). UArizona offers insurance through UnitedHealthcare.
The university also issues room assignments based on students’ preferred room gender through “open housing rooms” within “Gender Inclusive Housing” groups on certain floors or in certain dorms. Preferred names and pronouns are permitted to be changed for class rosters, emails, and other non-legal uses.
The university allows individuals to use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity, as well as offering restrooms that allow both genders.
UArizona received over $327.6 million from the state general fund in the last fiscal year. Current tuition rates are set at over $13,200 for residents, and over $39,500 for non-residents.
The university has a 50 percent four-year and 68 percent six-year graduation rate.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Last month, the University of Phoenix hosted a 21-day “equity challenge” for its staff. The challenge was voluntary for faculty and staff, and hosted by the Office of Educational Equity.
Focus areas for the challenge included allyship, disability, education, health care, interpersonal and institutional racism, and understanding privilege. This was the second year that the university hosted the challenge.
The director of student diversity and inclusion, Tondra Richardson, stated that the equity challenge ensured participants developed social justice outlooks for taking up leadership roles.
“This year’s challenge focused on giving participants the practical resources needed to develop inclusive leadership skills,” stated Richardson. “This year we also gave participants the opportunity to earn the Inclusive Leader: Commitment to Equity Badge, which allowed participants to demonstrate a tangible commitment to putting empathy, compassion, and curiosity into action.”
A project marketing manager for the university, Ivy Wong, testified that the challenge reconditioned her thinking on her own cultural awareness deficiencies.
“It is a rare opportunity to take a step back to reflect on my own inherent bias, as well as my social and cultural conditioning,” said Wong. “After these few weeks, I have more self-awareness and know what I need to unlearn and relearn.”
The challenge stemmed from an eponymous organization launched by Eddie Moore, a longtime diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate and founder of another social justice education organization, The Privilege Institute. Moore tailored his organization’s content for the university.
The organization suggests the first day’s challenge to be a study of a “Becoming Anti-Racist” graphic. The organization misattributed the graphic to activist Ibram X. Kendi — a doctor by the name of Andrew Ibrahim created the graphic.
The graphic charts an individual’s progression through three “zones” that one must advance through to become anti-racist: the “fear zone,” in which individuals deny racism is a problem and speak with others that look and think like them; the “learning zone,” in which individuals recognize racism is a present and current problem, understand their privilege in ignoring racism, educate themselves about race and structural racism, and admit vulnerability to biases and knowledge gaps; and the “growth zone,” in which individuals identify that they unknowingly benefit from racism, promote and advocate for anti-racist policies and leaders, dwell in discomfort, speak out against racism, educate peers on racism in their profession, yield positions of power to those otherwise marginalized, and surround themselves with others that look and think differently than them.
Learning a lot and striving to be better. Created this visual mental model as a way to help keep myself accountable (Adapted from one I had seen for #COVID a couple months ago.)
— Andrew M. Ibrahim MD, MSc (He/Him) (@AndrewMIbrahim) June 7, 2020
The University of Phoenix will follow up this 21-day challenge and promote a “National Day of Racial Healing” with an “Inclusive Cafe” next Wednesday. The university will also host a webinar series on Jan. 19 teaching staff and faculty how to continue their commitment to equity in 2023.
Past equity-focused webinar series have discussed how ableism leads to inequality, how others should serve indigenous communities, and what racism is.
In defining racism, the university defined racism as the exploitation, control, and violence directed at non-white people. The focus on defining racism declared that the concept of race was invented with the colonization and founding of the U.S., and that racism is a problem perpetuated by favoritism of whiteness.
The University of Phoenix also has a Center for Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Research, which offers fellowships for faculty, students, and alumni. Fellows research an advanced version of the DEI term: diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB).
The university will also have a second annual Inclusive Leadership Summit from May 2-4.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A BASIS Peoria high school student won one of this year’s congressional app development challenges for her app enabling parents to exchange or donate their children’s toys.
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) featured the winner, Molly Budhiraja, and her app, “Project Toy Exchange,” in her weekly newsletter issued last Saturday.
Budhiraja’s app will be displayed on the Congressional App Challenge website and in the U.S. Capitol, along with other winners nationwide. Budhiraja will have the opportunity to showcase her app to Congress during the annual #HouseofCode festival, a large science fair.
“I am so pleased to congratulate Molly Budhiraja for winning this year’s Congressional App Challenge,” stated Lesko in a press release. “Project Toy Exchange is a great app that connects parents with each other and encourages people to donate toys to children in the community. It is an honor to represent so many bright students, and it is wonderful to see how they use their talents and creativity through these apps to help others!”
Budhiraja thanked the congresswoman in a LinkedIn post, expressing excitement about the future of her app.
“I was honored to meet such an enthusiastic and intelligent woman leader in our community, who not only does remarkable work for our state, but our nation as well,” stated Budhiraja. “It was a pleasure to talk about my app and my future goals with the congresswoman and her team.”
The second-place winners were Mountain Ridge High School students Apramey Akkiraju and Rohan Agrawal. The teens created a “COVID-19 Tracker” app that provided color-coded maps detailing case count concentrations in the Western part of the country, as well as data on case and death counts.
Third-place winners were Challenge Charter School students Alexandra Acuna and Tori Lugo. The pair created the “Math4Life2” app, which helps children with multiplication problems and seeks to make math more fun.
All three apps proposed creative solutions to real issues facing Arizonans: rising costs of toys due to the inflation crisis, advising concerned Arizonans about COVID-19 spread, and fostering a positive relationship with math amid declining test scores.
One of the second-place winners, Agrawal, was last year’s champion, along with Dens Sumesh, a BASIS Peoria student. The pair created the app “DebateEV,” a website that collects existing debate card evidence and makes it accessible via a search format similar to Google’s. Agrawal and Sumesh stated that forced transition to remote learning, coupled with their ongoing involvement in their high school debate club, inspired the app.
Last year, Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-02), Andy Biggs (R-04), David Schweikert (R-06), and Ruben Gallego (D-07) also hosted challenges and named winners.
Kirkpatrick awarded first place to “Memolog” by Gregory School students Erik Wisnom, Chris Allen, Ted Roberts, and Karl Ramus. Their app applied memorization techniques to any piece a student needed to memorize.
Biggs’ winner was an artificial intelligence-based wildfire prevention system by Hamilton High School student Prisha Shroff.
Schweikert awarded first place to “Zubin’s Dungeon Quest” by BASIS Scottsdale student Zubin Sidhu, a video game that blended education with entertainment.
Gallego’s winner was “Surviving the Pandemic While Back-to-School” by University High School students Kamille Cuison, Liana Kay De Guzman, and Nathan Caldwell-Meeks. Their app informed students about the background, treatment options, and safety protocols for COVID-19.
The 2021 Congressional App Challenge reported producing over 2,100 fully functioning apps. Over 7,100 students entered the competition through 340 congressmens’ challenges.
The annual Congressional App Challenge is funded by the Omidyar Network, Amazon (Web Services), theCoderSchool, Facebook, Replit, Accenture, Rise, ACT: the App Association, Comcast NBCUniversal, and CGI.
In addition to Lesko, Kirkpatrick, Biggs, Schweikert, and Gallego, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-03) is also hosting a challenge this year.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The State of Arizona has initiated a lawsuit against the Buckeye Elementary School District (BESD) and its longtime superintendent Kristi Wilson in an attempt to recover what the attorney general’s office (AGO) contends is public monies “illegally paid” by the district to Wilson in violation of the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause.
The 70-page lawsuit filed Wednesday notes BESD paid more than $500,000 to Wilson or on her behalf that was not owed under her employment agreements. The AGO also raises questions about the legality of $1.7 million in “additional compensation paid under three agreements from July 2016 through December 2021, for total compensation of $3,274,505.
As superintendent, Wilson is responsible for 5,200 students across seven elementary schools. Her compensation was about 100 percent higher than the average pay for the superintendents of Arizona’s three largest school districts during the same five-year period.
Wilson and BESD came under investigation by the AGO following a detailed report by the Arizona Auditor General in April which raised questions about whether the additional compensation called for in Wilson’s three employment agreements violated state law.
The auditor’s report had harsh words for district officials, who reportedly omitted “critical information” and other records during the audit. Some officials were also chided for a lack of transparency that kept the public in the dark about Wilson’s performance and her compensation.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is not the first undertaken by Attorney General Mark Brnovich related to Arizona’s Gift Clause, which prohibits the payment of public monies unless such payment serves a public purpose and the value received by the public is not far exceeded by the consideration being paid by the public.
“Transparency and accountability are not electives in our public school districts,” Brnovich stated in announcing the lawsuit against Wilson and BESD. “Hardworking taxpayers expect these public funds to be expended in accordance with the law and the best interest of students.”
Wilson was named BESD’s superintendent in 2013. From FY2014 through FY2016, her annual compensation averaged $172,813. But over the next five years, her annual salary under three employment agreements ranged from a low of nearly $339,000 to a high of nearly $800,000.
The lawsuit states that in comparison, the superintendents at Arizona’s three largest districts earned from $208,600 to $306,179 per year. Another comparison noted by the AGO is that BESD paid its teachers an average of $44,536 in 2019.
Terri Jo Neff is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or send her news tips here.
Northern Arizona University (NAU) will offer illegal immigrant scholarships for the 2023-2024 academic year — even if they’re eligible for deportation. NAU partnered with TheDream.US, a scholarship program fund operated by the New Venture Fund: one nonprofit arm of the leading leftist dark money networks, Arabella Advisors.
The scholarships aren’t exclusively earmarked for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients. Any illegal immigrant that came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and before 2017 may apply for these scholarships.
In a statement, NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera said that the scholarships aligned with their university’s goal to make higher education accessible to all students. Rivera credited the passage of Proposition 308 for affirming this move.
“Through this partnership, NAU will further the will of the people of Arizona as expressed in the passage of Proposition 308, which affords Arizona Dreamers with in-state tuition and provides an invaluable pathway to upward economic mobility and social impact,” said Rivera.
Expanding opportunities for Dreamers is good for the country. We are better together. And together we advance better days. #DACApic.twitter.com/5a2vBoxvRU
Arizona State University (ASU), Benedictine University, and Grand Canyon University (GCU) also partner with TheDream.US.
Prop 308 awards in-state college tuition to Dreamers; voters approved the measure narrowly, 51 to 49 percent. The proposition was backed by at least $1.2 million of out-of-state dark money networks.
TheDream.US reports that at least 1.3 million illegal immigrant youth are eligible for DACA. Of the approximately 98,000 who graduate from high school each year, the program estimated that only five to 10 percent (65,000 to 130,000) enroll in college on average.
Extending permanent legal status to our nation’s Dreamers is the only moral path forward. Their undocumented status being simply an artifact of our country’s long-standing tradition as a beacon of hope. #DreamActNowhttps://t.co/DaMvQGni8O
Per AZ Free News past reporting, New Venture Fund (NVF) has initiatives outside of immigration reform advocacy. NVF launched the Fair Elections Center, which is behind the progressive elections reform activist project, Campus Vote Project (CVP).
In October, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now governor-elect, selected CVP Vice Chair Anusha Natarajan for the 2022 John Lewis Youth Leadership Award: a Barretts Honors College student, Andrew Goodman Fellow, and digital producer for the student newspaper at Arizona State University (ASU).
In 2020, Oscar Hernandez Ortiz — a DACA and TheDream.US scholarship recipient, strategist with the Arizona Bar Foundation, former fifth-grade teacher, Greater Phoenix Economic Council member, ASU graduate, former state legislature policy intern, and Arizona Department of Education Latinx Advisory Council member — wrote an Arizona Republic op-ed attacking the Trump administration’s efforts to end DACA. While at ASU, Ortiz founded the Undocumented Students for Education Equity, a resource hub for illegal immigrants.
NAU isn’t the only partner school for TheDream.US. The program lists over 80 “Partner Colleges.”
TheDream.US offers two scholarship types: the National Scholarship, which the program suggests for Arizona applicants, offers up to $16,500 for an associate degree and $33,000 for a bachelor’s degree; and the Opportunity Scholarship, which offers up to $80,000 for a bachelor’s degree to illegal immigrant students located in states without access to college because they either must pay out-of-state tuition or can’t gain admission to state universities. Applications close Feb. 28.
(Note: TheDream.US removed award amounts from its National Scholarship page earlier this year).
TheDream.US founders are: Don Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post), former director of Facebook, and former member of the Pulitzer Prize Board; Carlos Guitierrez, chairman and CEO of Empath, former chairman and CEO of Kellogg’s, and former Secretary of Commerce for the Bush administration; and Henry R. Muñoz III, former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.
Among senior staff at TheDream.US: its president Candy Marshall, the former chief human resources officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; director Maria Gabriela Pacheco, who immigrated illegally to the U.S. as a child; communications manager Sadhana Singh, a recipient of DACA and a TheDream.US scholarship; program manager Melanny Buitron, a DACA recipient; data manager, and Camila Salkhov, a Dreamer.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Fentanyl overdose kits are the latest among necessary school supplies for University of Arizona (UArizona) students.
Amid the burgeoning fentanyl crisis, Pima County supplied all 15 of the UArizona fraternity houses with fentanyl overdose treatment kits for the upcoming semester.
The county supplied the houses with Narcan kits as part of a year-long drive initiated by one of their Community Mental Health and Addiction interns, Aiden Pettit-Miller. UArizona’s Emergency Medical Services team and Interfraternity Council (IFC) also assisted.
Miller, a senior student at UArizona, says he launched the initiative after one of his high school friend’s roommates at Arizona State University (ASU) overdosed on fentanyl in 2020.
Narcan is the brand name for the medicine naloxone, and is also used to treat overdosing from other opioids: heroin, oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine, and morphine. First responders rely on the treatment for suspected overdosing.
The Arizona Department of Health reports over 1,400 opioid deaths so far this year. AZDHS folds fentanyl-related deaths into the “RX/Synthetic” category, which includes “all other opioids” except heroin, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. This year, the number of RX/Synthetic deaths is nearly 1,400 (97 percent).
In 2021, there were over 2,000 opioid deaths; just over 1,900 (94 percent) of deaths were RX/Synthetic. The fatality rate per 100,000 population dropped this year from 28 percent to 20 percent.
Amid the border crisis ushered in by the Biden administration, fentanyl deaths arose as the leading cause of death among adults aged 18 to 45 years old.
Teens accounted for 77 percent of adolescent overdose deaths last year. The demographic spike correlated with efforts by cartels to ply youth with the deadly drug, such as “rainbow fentanyl.”
Fentanyl became the subject of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) first public safety alert in six years, issued last September. As part of their campaign to raise awareness about the deadliness of fentanyl, “One Pill Can Kill,” the DEA discovered that about 60 percent of fake prescription pills contain lethal doses of fentanyl. The discovery marked an increase from the 2021 average of 40 percent.
These fake pills are marketed and disguised to appear legitimate via social media and e-commerce platforms.
Did you know that 6 out 10 seized #fakepills contain a lethal dose of fentanyl? #fakepills seizures are up and our #DEAHouston Associate Lab Director for South Central Jamie Vasquez speaks on the fake pills seizures that come through the lab. #OPCKpic.twitter.com/SbAL0zQXpI
On college campuses like UArizona, victims of fentanyl overdosing range widely. The partygoer looking for a high and the student looking for extra focus are at equal risk. UArizona, along with ASU, ranks consistently as one of the top party schools in the nation, and Adderall is a popular go-to for students studying for exams or finishing hefty assignments. Both popular party drugs and study boosters may be obtained illicitly, and both are likely to contain deadly doses of fentanyl.
During finals do not risk it, do not buy any adderall from a “friend”, or social media it is likely a counterfeit pill with a lethal dose of fentanyl. pic.twitter.com/YnMoF8C4nY
UArizona is also looking to create an organization called “Fraternities Fighting Fentanyl” with their School of Public Health, the fraternities, and the student-run emergency medical service. The organization will hand out fentanyl test strips, Narcan, and educational pieces to students.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
