PCC partners with Catholic University to offer low-cost business degree

Students at Pima Community College now have a chance to earn a low-cost bachelor’s degree in management through a new partnership with Catholic University of America.

The two schools have teamed up with Tucson business leaders to develop a hybrid curriculum that allows students to remain in Tucson while earning their degree from the Washington, D.C.-based Catholic University.

Students enrolled in the program take specialized in-person courses at PCC two to three times a week — some of which involve engaging with local businesses — as well as online classes taught by faculty at Catholic University. Once students earn an associate’s degree, their credits transfer toward a business management bachelor’s degree from Catholic University.

The program, which has been in the works since 2017, officially launched last year. But because of COVID-19 restrictions, the college didn’t hold a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony at its downtown campus until Wednesday.

“This partnership really reflects that integration of work and learning as a reciprocal, ongoing lifetime process,” PCC Chancellor Lee Lambert said at the ceremony. “It provides an important opportunity to bring this applied working and learning dynamic into a business program that is much needed.”

The program is starting small, and students don’t have to be Catholic to do it. There are eight active students who started last year and 12 who started this year. It’s hoping to have cohorts of around 25 students as it moves forward next year.

Perhaps the most appealing part of the program for many current and prospective students is affordability.

It costs under $10,000 a year, which isn’t much more than the maximum of $6,495 per year eligible low-income students can receive through the federal Pell Grant this year. However, students are not required to be Pell-eligible, or meet any type of household income threshold to enroll in the program. In comparison, the sticker price for in-state tuition at the University of Arizona is $12,384 and $11,338 at Arizona State University.

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And for the time being, the largesse of Tucson-area businessmen Jim Click Jr., Ross McCallister and Humberto S. Lopez — the trio raised a total of $402,000 — has provided additional $3,000 scholarships for students now enrolled in the program.

“When I first heard about it, I thought it was kind of too good to be true,” said Layla Rodriguez, a second-year student in the program who aspires to work in the music industry. But then she started talking to the program’s advisors and they assured her that this is a real opportunity to get hands-on management experience without accruing massive debt. “I realized I could get this really prestigious degree for only a fraction of what I would pay at the UA.”

The low cost may draw in students, but the promise of a job on the other side of graduation is another key motivator for reaching the finish line. Throughout the program, students get to work with successful entrepreneurs like Click Jr., who owns numerous car dealerships in Southern Arizona. He recently paid some students to run a business analysis for him.

That opportunity to build a robust professional network while still in school is invaluable to students like Rodriguez, who praised the program for not only “setting you up to think about your career,” but setting “you up to have a career afterward.”

As for the future of this program, Catholic University President John H. Garvey said he wants to see it grow. He described the Tucson program, which is the first partnership of its kind, as the “beta experiment.”

“We’re trying to make this work here and we’re determined to do it,” Garvey said. “Once this succeeds, we’re going to take it elsewhere around the country.”