Pima College cuts nonresident tuition, increases local rate

Pima Community College is hiking tuition for Arizonans while giving deep discounts to everyone else.

Officials hope the changes will help PCC attract more out-of-state and international students to offset a major enrollment slump at home.

The tuition plan for the upcoming school year, approved Wednesday by a 4-1 vote of PCC’s Governing Board, calls for:

• A 4 percent hike for in-state students, which would increase their basic tuition by $3 per unit from $75.50 to $78.50.
• A 14.7 percent cut for international students. Their tuition would drop by $52 from $352 to $300 per unit.
• A 14.7 percent reduction for out-of-state students who take classes on campus. They, too, would pay $52 less bringing their cost from $352 to $300 per unit.
• A 40 percent cut in nonresident online tuition. The price per unit would drop from $352 to $210 for savings of $142 per unit.
• A 50 percent tuition cut for students over age 55, a bid to attract a demographic that normally doesn’t seek out PCC’s credit offerings.

School officials said the new rates will help PCC regroup after losing 28 percent of its full-time equivalent enrollment in the last five years, in addition to losing millions in state funding.

“All of these (changes) should have a positive impact on enrollment,” said college finance boss David Bea, who recommended the new tuition plan.

Bea couldn’t say how big the impact might be. That will depend on how well the college markets the new rates to prospective students, he said.

PCC’s current tuition rates are “at the high end of the spectrum” for out-of-state, international and online students, Bea said.

As an example, he cited Rio Salado College in Tempe, which offers online courses for $215 per unit while PCC has been charging $352. PCC’s new online rate of $210 will allow it to undercut Rio Salado, Bea said.

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Bea said the $3 per unit increase for in-state students was well-received by several student leaders he contacted for feedback.

The $3 increase follows a $5 increase for in-state students that took effect this school year.

Board members who supported the tuition changes said they don’t like the idea of raising rates again for Arizona students, but said the package of changes was necessary to move the college forward.

“It feels as if we’re somehow balancing the budget on the backs of in-state students. I don’t think that’s what going on but it certainly has that flavor,” said Demion Clinco, the board’s District 2 representative.

District 1 board member Mark Hanna, a retired high school guidance counselor, was the lone vote against the changes.

Hanna said no matter how PCC tries to explain it, in-state students are sure to conclude “that they are paying for the (tuition) reductions for international and out-of-state students.”

Tracy Nuckolls, a representative from PCC’s finance and audit committee, told the board the committee supports the tuition changes and believes PCC officials are doing their best in a challenging situation.

“You’re tackling a very difficult subject at a very difficult time in the college’s history,” he said.