« Previous | Main | Next »

Arizona Mulls No-Frills College Plan

June 22, 2009 4:37 PM

ABC News On Campus reporter Toby Phillips blogs:

Arizona students worried about spiraling higher-education costs may have some other options in sight: small, cheap, no-frills colleges.

The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) is hearing proposals from the three current state universities to open low-cost college campuses around the state.

The plan would create satellite locations of Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

The smaller campuses will house few majors and are slated to cost a fraction of what the three big state institutions charge. Instead of being research-oriented institutions, the new campuses would be instruction intensive.  Over the past few years, tuition at state universities in Arizona has increased by more than 50 percent, and state funding for higher education has been slashed amid growing budget deficits.

Just this past semester, emergency "tuition surcharges" of between $500 and $800 were approved to help the universities cope with cuts from the state. Students, then, are left to foot the bills. And for incoming in-state students this fall, that bill could be close to $7,000 a year after tuition and fees. Tuition at NAU is $6,627; at UA, $6,842; and at ASU’s Tempe campus, $6,840.
 
So, in order to cut out-of-pocket costs for students and families, the three presidents worked up a plan. In theory, the new colleges would attract students who may not be able to afford to attend a large, four year university, but don't wish to attend a community college because the community colleges in Arizona don't provide those coveted four-year degrees.

Workforce-demand programs to teach trades would be one focus of these new colleges – degree programs that would reflect the needs of the community. Though the plan did not specify which trades would be offered, ASU already offers nursing, construction management, and even golf management.  
The programs would also be highly structured with little room for electives and extra-curricular studies, according to the presidents. They said that students would receive much more faculty and staff advising to get quickly through degree programs.

Community colleges around the state would be asked to partner with the large universities to make these satellite colleges work. “Flagship” campuses would be ASU, UA or NAU, with classes being taught in various communities.

In a presentation to the Arizona Board of Regents last Thursday, the three state university presidents outlined their plans to get this project off the ground.

ASU President Michael Crow said the main concern now is creating a funding model. “There is high demand," he said. ASU's part in the new venture would be called "The Colleges at ASU."

"We can see that [demand] from what is happening at ASU,” Crow said. “Our issue will be how to design the programs that can provide the highest probability of success."

The cost to students to attend these planned new colleges: around $5,800 a year, the most students can receive from the Federal Pell Grant Program.
 
Crow added that around 15,000 Arizonans graduate from high school every year who are capable of going on to college but do not for various reasons. The new colleges would aim to attract those students, and would be setup in areas of the state where access to higher education is limited.

Once the funding is figured out, the focus must be on effectiveness, said Regent Bob McLendon.
"The quality is a must," he said. "If we don't have quality, we are indeed a fraud. We don't want to be that in Arizona."

McLendon reminded the board that universities do function off of business models. "Our students at our universities are customers and they need to be treated as such," he said.

President Jon Haeger of NAU cautioned the Board of Regents against making any hasty decisions."We can do this wrong," he said. "You can waste money in experiments that will not work."

Arizona wouldn't be the only state using a tier-model university system. The regents spoke of North Carolina and Indiana, where similar programs have been set up.  And at a time where taxpayer money is being spread thin and the state university system facing millions more in cuts for the next fiscal year, Haeger stressed that the board needs to do its research.

"We need to learn what happened in other states [when they started similar programs]," he said.

Alec Thompson, a global studies major at ASU, isn't convinced that a new proposal is in the state's best interest.

"I don't like it," Thompson said. "They need to focus on accessibility to the already established universities rather than developing a second-rate bachelors degree."

Recent ASU graduate Honora Swanson-Bober agrees. "Can't they just put more money into the already existing universities?" she asked. 

To Nick Shreffler, a senior, non-profit management major,  a degree from one of these universities may not be the best career decision.

"How is a low-cost four year institution going to be able to give the same education?" he asked. "It may be a four-year degree, but because its low cost, people will look at it the same as a community college degree. You may have a four year degree, but it won’t be respected," Shreffler said.

Haeger acknowledged the criticism, saying, “In times of economic uncertainty, why are we doing this and why don’t we just hunker down, in a sense?” Increasing access to different types of institutional experiences was the best option for Arizonans., he stressed.

For now, this new model is in the planning stages. The Board of Regents and university presidents stressed that plenty of work and research needed to be done to make the project happen.
If approved, the first baccalaureate college is expected to open in 2010. Ultimately, ABOR hopes that the Arizona University System will increase bachelor degree production by at least 50 percent annually by the year 2020.

June 22, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)

User Comments

Posted by: Debra J. White | Jun 23, 2009 11:05:02 AM

Posted by: Paul Eschen | Jun 24, 2009 11:24:08 AM

Posted by: A. Wicker | Jun 24, 2009 1:47:14 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: