The University of Arizona plans to build three new dorms in the next three years because more students want to live on campus than there are available beds.

The shortage of rooms results in frustrated – and worried – parents, and hundreds of thousands dollars, in some years more than $1 million, in lost income for UA.

This fall when the nearly 6,000 beds were filled, about 660 students ended up on a residence hall waiting list, said Steve Gilmore, a UA Residence Life assistant director.

The Arizona Board of Regents has approved the estimated $185 million “Sixth Street Residence Halls” plan, which will add three new dorms to the southern edge of campus.

About 75 percent of on-campus residents are freshmen because “parents mostly want their new freshmen to be in residence halls,” said Joel D. Valdez, UA’s senior vice president for business affairs. “We just don’t have enough beds.”

Although UA officials know of 660 people who signed up for the waiting list, officials have no idea how many were deterred because of the list. Last year, UA put 238 people on a waiting list, Gilmore said.

One reason for the hike is this fall’s record number of freshmen.

UA expected about 6,600 freshmen, said Rick Kroc, UA’s assistant vice president for enrollment management. UA will have final figures next month.

Two halls are planned on existing surface parking lots along East Sixth Street – one south of Coronado Residence Hall and the other southwest of Arizona Stadium.

One of UA’s oldest residence halls – the 60-year-old Hopi Lodge, 1440 E. Fourth St., will meet the wrecking ball to make room for the third new hall. About 120 students live in Hopi.

Together, the new halls will increase UA’s dorm capacity by about 1,060 beds.

Valdez said Hopi Lodge “is outdated, and it’s small.” Reflecting on his time at UA, Valdez said he and other baseball team members would hang out at the hall after games.

“It was old when I was there in 1951,” he said.

Officials had an initial meeting Aug. 8 to discuss the development with residents in the West University, Rincon Heights, Iron Horse and Pie Allen neighborhood associations. Another meeting is planned for sometime this fall.

University officials said construction on the new undergraduate student halls is set to begin in October 2008 with a completion date set in 2010.

It is still too early to say how the new halls will be similar or different from existing halls, said Debra Johnson, senior architect with UA’s facilities design and construction.

“We’re still evaluating the physical appearance and land usage and confirming how many beds we can fit on the sites,” she said.

UA has selected AR7 Architects of Denver for the project, she said.

Architects working for the firm completed other UA buildings, including Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Dennis Deconcini Environment and Natural Resources and those in the Highland Commons.

“They’ll never tell the architect what they want them to look like. They want to hear all the ideas,” said Melissa Dryden, senior program coordinator for facilities design and construction.

“But it won’t be a skyrise like Coronado,” Dryden said. “They want lower buildings with buildings focused around courtyards so it’s more of a community.”

Also, the halls will operate as “learning communities” to help improve student retention.

The new dorms are not the only development affecting UA Residence Life.

Apache-Santa Cruz and Colonia De La Paz residence halls are getting interior makeovers, which should be completed by August.

UA expects to spend an estimated $4.2 million to repair the halls’ electrical networks and plumbing.

UA is doing similar work at Coronado and completed work on Cochise Hall’s sprinkler system during the summer. Those projects cost $17.7 million combined.

Valdez said UA is looking into the option of offering faculty housing north of East Speedway Boulevard.

He also said UA may consider leasing additional off campus space and that it plans for smaller housing units along East Second Street.

“We want to put in more housing and mix it in with the fraternities and sororities,” Valdez said. “But we’re in thinking stages at this time.”

Quick – what is a polynomial? How do you solve linear equations?

If you can’t answer, you are not unlike 881 University of Arizona freshmen taking Pima Community College’s remedial math classes on the UA campus.

For years, college administrators have been calling attention to the numbers of students who are not ready for college-level math.

PCC teaches UA students Math 092 or Math 122 – elementary algebra and intermediate algebra, respectively – at UA.

“If their classes are right there, they’re used to it,” said James E. Johnson, PCC Community Campus dean of instruction. “It’s comfortable and more accessible to them if it’s in their current environment.”

For the first time, this summer PCC tested UA’s remedial math students for placement into those classes, he said.

UA no longer teaches those courses, which serve as stepping stones to required math. UA’s base-level math courses are “Math in Modern Society,” college algebra and pre-calculus.

Tina Schuster, a UA math placement coordinator, said taking Pima’s remedial courses “greatly improves a student’s chances of success.”

Reasons vary as to why students don’t place well. Some skip math their senior year and others may not place well on standardized exams.

“It’s hard to say exactly why,” Schuster said.

Concerned about the numbers, UA President Robert N. Shelton and PCC Chancellor Roy Flores issued a joint letter to Arizona’s public school superintendents this month.

The letter states: “Entering college students who have taken less than four years of mathematics and who have not taken their top-level math as high school seniors have clearly lower retention rates at our colleges than other kinds of students.”

The letter also states that 30 percent of first-year UA students don’t test into basic-level college algebra. For those attending PCC, that figure is 80 percent.

The number of UA students PCC has taught has fluctuated in recent years.

During the fall of 2001, PCC enrolled 436 UA students in remedial math, Johnson said. That’s compared with 392 in 2004 and 398 last year, he said.

The lowest number of UA students taking the Pima courses in recent years was 263 in 2005. At 881, this fall’s figure is the highest in a seven-year period.

“This year really demonstrates that we’ve taken a renewed interest in making sure the students are ready,” Johnson said.

The 881 figure does not include UA students in remedial courses who are taking their classes at one of PCC’s campuses.

To reduce the number of students who test below college-level math, Shelton and Flores suggest:

• Superintendents require college-bound students take four years of math, which has been recommended by the P-20 Council of Arizona.

• Superintendents ensure that math is taken during the senior year in high school.

• UA and PCC work with businesses to tap “retired or semi-retired professionals” who could serve as math teachers.

“Math runs through every discipline in some way,” Johnson said. “So students need to understand math. It’s important that they do.”

It was Ben K. Sternberg’s childhood desire to become an explorer of Arctic regions and now the University of Arizona professor has an Antarctic peak named after him.

The naming came about because of Sternberg’s work with the University of Nebraska’s Ross Ice Shelf Project – a drilling project – during the 1973-74 season, a UA news release said.

Sternberg was a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student at the time and became involved with the project, which studied the state of the ice shelf.

It is among a scattering of others that make up the Nebraska Peaks, according to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names’ Web site.

Officials with the project set in motion efforts to have the peak named after Sternberg, a UA mining and geological engineering professor, the release said.

A documentary about how Hispanic journalists worked to dismantle stereotypes about the Latino community in California will be screened in Tucson on Tuesday.

“Below the Fold: The Pulitzer That Defined Latino Journalism,” by Roberto Gudiño, is about a group of reporters at the Los Angeles Times in 1984.

Gudiño interviewed those involved with the original articles for the 26-minute documentary.

The University of Arizona’s Media, Democracy & Policy Initiative produced the film, which will be shown at 7 p.m. at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

The three-year-old, nonprofit initiative was created to look into how the Hispanic population was represented.

The screening will include a discussion and guests including Nancy Rivera Brooks, George Ramos, Louis Sahagun and Frank Sotomayor.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Loft. To learn more, call 626-3731.

University of Arizona parking permits are in higher demand this year, with about 5,500 names still on a waiting list Friday.

UA has already assigned its 17,500 permits, said David Heineking, associate director of operations for UA’s parking and transportation services.

“We’re very similar to last year, but we’re very slightly up,” he said “But it’s not as bad as it seems.”

On Thursday UA had tallied more than 7,000 permit seekers, which includes duplicates. Each person is allowed to sit on lists for two different permit types.

But some relief came during the summer and on Friday.

UA officials Friday released about 1,500 unclaimed permits to students, faculty and staff waiting for garage and surface lot spaces, Heineking said. That brought the list down to about 5,500 names.

That group has one week to pay or UA will release the permits for others still waiting, he said. Depending on the type, permits cost $143 to $494 for the year, he said.

UA also has partnered with the Pima Association of Governments to start a vanpool program for its employees.

During the summer, the university added 250 spaces to the Cherry Avenue Garage near the McKale Center.

“It has just opened,” Heineking said, “but it filled up pretty quickly.”

The biggest demand is for “Zone 1″ – the most popular permit type on campus.

Zone 1 spots are generally closer to the center of campus. Heineking said 2,300 are waiting to get a Zone 1 permit.

Abby Gettinger has a permit for the Highland Avenue Parking Garage.

“I didn’t know about Zone 1 until later,” said Gettinger, 18, a freshman.

Gettinger said it would have cost her father about $250 less than the garage. “I went with the garage because I could get it,” she said.

Heineking didn’t have readily available figures for last year’s permits. But he said that at this this time last year, UA released about 500 permits compared with this year’s 1,500.

“Not as many people picked them up this year,” he said. “It’s got to be that people are finding another way, either by taking the bus, riding their bikes or walking.”

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UA PARKING, BY THE NUMBERS

17,500: Total number of permits available

15,000: The minimum number of spaces available on and off campus

5,800: Number of surface lot spaces

5,000: Minimum number of names on UA waiting list for parking permits. That number includes duplicates because students can be on two permit lists..

1,353: Discounted bus passes sold

92: Number of reserved spots, which cost an additional $1,000. These are premium parking spaces on campus.

7: Number of parking garages

Source: David Heineking, associate director of operations for UA’s parking and transportation services.

It’s to help cut cost of offering courses; ASU gets $441K

Arizona universities have received more than half a million dollars in grants from the Arizona Board of Regents.

Arizona State University got $441,000. The University of Arizona received $150,300 and Northern Arizona University got $99,500. The awards were made based on proposals from the universities, with a committee judging the merits of the proposals.

The funds cover a two-year period and allow the schools to reduce the cost of offering courses by an estimated $15 to $259 per student for each course funded, board documents show. The grants were awarded earlier this year.

A report to the state Board of Regents on Friday spelled out details of how the funds will be used.

“We believe these projects show excellent promise for improving student success,” said Regent Christina Palacios. “In light of our growth, we need to be more efficient.”

UA will use funds to revamp a chemistry course and lab, a natural sciences class and one introductory biology course.

With the grant and the redesign of the courses, UA will save more than $590,000, a report showed.

It will be done by combining labs and courses, increasing technology use and relying more on the Internet for coursework.

Also during the regents meeting Friday, the board approved the appointment of Melissa M. Vito as vice president of student affairs.

UA President Robert N. Shelton, who advocated for the appointment, said Vito’s position is part of university efforts to “expand and elevate” her office.

Vito, who has been with UA more than 30 years, served as dean of students and has held several other administrative positions.

Her salary will be $210,000 a year.

Vito will oversee all areas related to student involvement.

She will be responsible for a $100 million budget and 3,000 employees.

“Creativity, energy and collaboration are really important to me,” Vito said in a statement. “In this capacity, I will continue looking for new ways to address common issues facing our students.”

The Arizona Board of Regents has sealed a deal between the University of Arizona and the city of Tucson.

The agreement Thursday means UA can advance its plan to move its Science Center and the Arizona State Museum to a site downtown.

The site, Tucson Origins Heritage Park, will include Mission San Agustín, the Carrillo House and a new Tucson Children’s Museum.

“There is really no place more special than at the base of ‘A Mountain,’ ” said Bob Smith, UA’s director of facilities design and construction.

Mayor Bob Walkup attended the meeting with City Council members Nina Trasoff, José Ibarra and Steve Leal.

“There is nothing more important today than being here to talk about this,” Walkup said. “This has been a labor of love for years.”

This month, the City Council formally approved $130 million in Rio Nuevo dollars for the project.

All regents gave “aye” votes. When asked whether anyone had a “nay” vote, Regent Dennis DeConcini said, “Resign. If anyone opposes it, they should resign.”

In other news:

• Officials talked about a proposal that could lead to changes in the way the Arizona university system is funded.

State universities receive the equivalent of one new faculty member for every 22 new students, plus funding that the state must approve.

Earlier this year, some in the Legislature said this structure must be changed.

Early ideas included structures that would depend on the number of degrees awarded, targeted student groups or statewide and university priorities.

“But we intend to work with all the stakeholders,” said Sandra K. Woodley, the regents’ chief financial officer. “This won’t affect this (funding) cycle.”

• Preliminary budget requests show that UA hopes to get $58 million for “core” projects and key initiatives, Arizona State University wants $52 million, and Northern Arizona University wants $19 million.

Those numbers will likely increase as officials finalize their requests.

UA President Robert N. Shelton said his requests are “critical to the function of the university.”

He also said UA would likely need $44 million to repair buildings.

“These are state assets, and we cannot allow state assets to deteriorate,” he said.

Shelton said an additional $30 million is needed to pay the debt service for the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

Regents also approved:

• Budgets for the Technology and Research Initiative Fund for the current fiscal year at $101 million. This includes $27 million from the previous year.

Voters in 2000 approved the fund, to be supported by a 0.6 percent sales tax, which will allow the universities to hire more faculty, initiate programs, buy new equipment and construct buildings, among other things.

• UA’s sublease agreement with the Phoenix Union High School Alumni Association. The association will be able to use 645 square feet of display space to showcase memorabilia. The cost is $10 annually for 30 years.

University of Arizona officials say it will take millions of dollars to improve teacher training, expand science education, combat health disparities and support a list of other university-backed initiatives.

So they, along with administrators from Arizona State and Northern Arizona universities, will present their preliminary budget estimates to the Arizona Board of Regents when they meet here Thursday and Friday.

Regents are expected to offer guidance on the requests for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2008.

The budgets will go before the board again in September and are expected to reach Gov. Janet Napolitano and legislators for yet another review by Oct. 1.

UA is seeking about $58 million, ASU wants about $52 million while NAU’s early numbers show a request of nearly $19 million.

That wish list does not include all financial requests.

Other monetary requests, on top of the core budget, will include money for the College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy expansions into Phoenix or pay raises, Greg Fahey, UA’s associate vice president for government relations, said.

“Those numbers are always big and it’s more than we’ll ever get,” he said. “But it does show the size of the problem of how far we are behind.”

For example, UA officials also want more than $12 million to help improve ways to detect and treat cancer, hire new faculty, have new space and purchase more equipment.

It also wants nearly $10 million for its “Energy Initiative,” which would establish the Solar Energy Center of Excellence to determine ways to address the state’s land, water and energy needs.

“There are some new things,” Fahey said. “We’re trying to achieve a real meshing of the university’s talent, and an enhancement of those talents, to suit the needs of the state.”

Other items that will be discussed during the two-day meeting include:

• How the state universities have spent voter-approved Technology and Research Initiative Fund money.

• UA’s intention to sublease portions of the former Phoenix Union High School building to the school’s alumni association.

• UA’s plans to appoint a vice president for student affairs.

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MEETINGS HERE
Arizona Board of Regents will hold a regular meeting at University of Arizona Thursday and Friday.

Thursday’s meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The meeting will continue Friday at 9:40 a.m.

The call to the audience will be held Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

The meeting will be held at UA’s Student Union Memorial Center, 1303 E. University Blvd.

Pima Community College is working to attract nursing faculty in order to graduate more nurses.

But finding and hiring nursing faculty has been a challenge withclasses starting Wednesday.

“The three most serious constraints are adequate facilities, availability of clinical sites and faculty to teach,” said Louis Albert, Pima Community College West Campus president. “But there is a shortage of prepared nursing faculty.”

Several PCC officials said inadequate pay is part of the problem.

Fourteen full-time nursing faculty positions are open and about half the nursing faculty will be able to retire in five years, PCC reported earlier this month.

The Arizona Board of Nursing has since deemed PCC “deficient” in the area of full-time, master’s-level trained nursing faculty.

The college has until May to improve the situation or risk probation.

“It is clear that the Pima Community College salary structure is no longer competitive with nursing faculty salaries at other colleges in Arizona and with salaries at hospitals and other health care agencies,” one PCC board document read.

The typical new PCC nursing faculty member will earn $45,000 to $50,000 for a nine-month contract, the district reported. But some health care sites offer starting bonuses, and salaries of more than $70,000.

Seventy students recently graduated from PCC’s certificate in practical nursing program, said David Irwin, the college’s spokesman. But the program’s capacity is 120. Irwin attributed the gap to the faculty shortage.

PCC’s board will revisit the topic of nursing faculty pay next month when officials present information on ways to improve the salary situation.

But the college is already making improvements elsewhere.

The 18-month accelerated program added about 80 students, nearly doubling the program this fall, Irwin said.

This has freed space in the traditional program, Irwin said.

PCC also offers an associate of applied science in nursing, with enrollment reaching more than 550 nursing students, Irwin said.

PCC started working with Tucson Medical Center in 2005 and Carondelet Health Network last year to train new nurses.

The college also hopes to be part of next year’s Pima County bond proposal, which, if approved by voters, would enable PCC to create a “health care campus,” Irwin said.

Albert said the proposed 120,000 square-foot building would provide teaching and laboratory space. The campus now has less than 25,000 square feet for such purposes, he said.

“We have tremendous shortages and we’re doing everything we know how to address the problem,” he said.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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NURSING JOBS

• Nurses are in high demand and will remain so at least through 2014.

• Registered nurses fill 2.4 million jobs nationally and about 3 out of 5 of those are in a hospital setting. Nurses also work in clinics, physician offices and through telehealth, which is care offered at a distance by telephone.

• A bachelor’s degree and associate degree are the most common ways someone becomes a registered nurse. Other opportunities, such as administrative positions, may exist for those with higher-level degrees.

• Nationally, nursing students must graduate from an approved program and pass a licensing exam – the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses – to become licensed.

• Nurses can expect pay, on average, between $37,000 and $75,000, depending on experience, level of expertise and area of employment.

UA, PCC scramble to meet Prop. 300

Prove you’re a legal resident of Arizona or shell out an extra $11,000 in tuition.

As of July, 877 University of Arizona students hadn’t documented they were in the country legally, now an additional requirement for qualifying for in-state tuition. More than 1,500 university students statewide have been found ineligible for in-state tuition or aid.

This week, as classes begin at UA and Pima Community College, students and administrators are rushing to bridge that gap.

The source of the hustling is Proposition 300, passed by voters in November. The measure bans state education and child-care benefits for people who can’t prove they are in the U.S. legally.

The law directly affected nearly 5,000 people throughout the state and about 1,230 in Tucson, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. That’s including about 350 PCC students found to be ineligible for in-state tuition and scholarships.

Since the law was approved, UA and other state institutions have reviewed in-state tuition rolls to demonstrate they are complying with the law. The first report was due June 30 and the next Dec. 31.

After drop-add day Monday, UA officials should have a better idea of how many students are affected.

Hypothetically, if the 1,500 rejected university students had received full-ride scholarships, for example, that would have equated to more than $20 million, state Treasurer Dean Martin, told The Arizona Republic this month.

“This is now $20 million more (the schools) can use for tuition aid for other students or for other programs,” said Martin, a former Republican state senator.

Acceptable documents include a birth certificate, U.S. passport, tribal identification card, a foreign passport with a U.S. visa and other documents. In some cases, documents can stand alone as proof while others must accompany secondary paperwork.

At UA, in-state undergraduates pay $4,824 compared with $16,058 for out-of-state students.

For PCC students taking 12 units each semester this academic year, the amount is $1,128 for Arizona residents compared with $5,664 for nonresidents.

• Pros and cons

Some call the law mean-spirited and racist while others say it is necessary.

Lorraine Lee, Chicanos Por La Causa executive vice president, said while the number of students affected may not be as high as expected, “the act itself” is what’s frustrating.

“But the saddest part is that you look at those numbers and you have so many students who had access to education,” Lee said. “In that respect, I see that as a loss for us all.”

Eric Checketts, a UA student, disagreed.

“What boggles my mind is that everyone is treating this like a controversial issue,” said Checketts, 25, a pre-business major.

Because voters overwhelmingly approved the proposition, Checketts said he is “amazed” with the current debate.

While Checketts agreed it’s no fault of the adult whose parents brought him to the United States as a child, such a person still should not get state support, he said.

“I don’t think it’s fair for them to come to the government and American citizens and say, ‘It’s your responsibility to make this right,’ ” Checketts said. “It’s not your fault, but it’s also not the fault of the citizens of America.”

• Cost of compliance

Officials at UA and PCC said complying with the law has proved challenging and costly.

“If you just count the minutes I’ve spent on the phone, it’s taken us hundreds of hours, meetings and conversations to deal with this,” said Paul Kohn, UA’s acting vice president of enrollment management.

“If you add up what (Arizona State University) and (Northern Arizona University) have been through, statewide, we’re probably in the millions,” Kohn said.

The bursar’s office, financial aid and enrollment management were among the UA departments that worked on compliance, said UA spokesman Johnny Cruz.

And UA’s office of the registrar employed one person for two months to focus on the new law, Cruz said.

Schools are educating students about the new requirements as the verification process continues this week – the first week of classes for UA and PCC.

UA does not know how much it has spent on compliance, but Cruz said that “the amount of staff hours is certainly in the thousands.”

PCC has a better handle on its spending.

The college estimated that it spent more than $37,000 on attorney fees, printing and postage, among other costs.

Those funds came out of the college’s general funds – money that likely would have gone toward instruction, PCC Chancellor Roy Flores said.

“I don’t want to minimize the monetary impact, but the larger impact is the time spent on this from the very beginning,” Flores said. “We had meeting after meeting after meeting trying to sort out how to implement this.”

PCC put about 80 employees through training and has devoted about 1,300 staff hours to compliance, its report shows.

One remaining question is how many students are deciding or have decided not to apply to colleges and universities because of the law, UA’s Kohn said.

“The other difficulty is the challenge in describing the policy in a way that doesn’t frighten away students,” Kohn said. “We don’t know if some attrition may be attributed to this.”

But officials know that some students are finding ways to get around the law, such as applying for privately funded grants, scholarships and other aid that require no documentation and Social Security number.

Flores said that he wasn’t surprised with the figures and that he didn’t expect more students to be affected than what has been reported.

“I think the idea that every Hispanic graduate is illegal kind of flies in the face of reality,” Flores said.

“To be fair, we don’t know how many people did not register because they knew they had to have documents,” he said.

“But on the other hand, our enrollment is up.”

Flores said he hopes this process and the new law will open up “thoughtful debate” about immigration.

“I hope people will rely on the evidence,” he said. “I hope we can come up with solutions as a nation that make sense for the nation and are humane and fair-minded.”

Sources: Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the University of Arizona and Pima Community College

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PUBLIC PROGRAM REQUESTS REVOKED*

• 1,470: Arizona community college students whose in-state classifications were revoked because they could not provide legal documentation.

• 320: Arizona community college students who were not eligible for aid because they could not prove legal status or are in the state illegally. Pima Community College reported that 23 did not qualify for tuition and fee waivers, grants and other scholarships for lack of documentation.

• 1,524: University students throughout Arizona found to be ineligible. At UA, 877 students who once qualified for in-state tuition have yet to be verified and five told UA they didn’t have documents.

• 86: Number of people whose child care assistance applications were denied through the Department of Economic Security.

• 1,403: Individuals denied Arizona Adult Education instruction.

• 30: The number of people who were denied participation in the Family Literacy Program.

*Reports were released July 3 or earlier in the year, so figures may change.

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Need Proposition 300 compliance help?

• UA’s Office of the Registrar: www.registrar.arizona.edu – Visit the university’s site for information on what is required of students attending the university. UA also has a list of documents the office will accept from students verifying their legal status.

• Pima Community College: www.pima.edu/announcements/200703/TuitionAssessment.shtml – Learn about PCC’s “Tuition Assessment Form,” which must be filled out by student seeking in-state tuition. The page includes information about the documents the college will accept for verifying legal status.

Nursing pin can be earned in 11 to 18 months

At least four years of study has been the common route toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

But colleges and universities concerned about the need to train nurses more quickly are increasingly opting for hospital-supported accelerated programs.

“It’s not realistic for students to go to school and maintain their regular workweek,” said Victoria Veronese, a manager in University Medical Center’s surgical trauma intensive care unit. “This makes it easier for them – and faster.”

Fast-track programs cut the road to a nursing pin to 11 to 18 months.

And partner hospitals, such as UMC, can provide clinical training and pay for student tuition, faculty salaries and other support. In exchange, they get post-graduation work vows from students.

Such education-business partnerships may become more common.

About 30 fast-track programs existed in the U.S. in 1990 compared with about 200 today open to students with no prior nursing training, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing said.

“In the 1980s we were shaking the bushes for students, but we now have a huge pool of potential,” said Pamela Randolph, the Arizona Board of Nursing’s associate director of education.

The University of Arizona, Pima Community College and the private Grand Canyon University are among those with speedy nursing programs.

And each is expanding.

Tiffany Erin White, who graduated Aug. 9 from UA’s program, said it fit perfectly.

“I didn’t want to do a traditional program,” said White, previously a stay-at- home mother with a degree in art history. “Being that I’m 34, I didn’t want to spend too many years of my life in school. I needed to get to it and start getting a salary.”

White will soon begin working in the labor and delivery unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital through Carondelet Health Network, her sponsor.

“I knew I wouldn’t have a problem finding a job,” said White, whose class of 64 brought the program’s graduates to more than 300 to date.

Several concerns surrounding nursing education and the profession have pushed the demand for more graduates such as White.

Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states but has one of the lowest rates of registered nurses per capita.

Also, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the state would be more than 11,000 registered nurses short by 2010 and about 21,800 short by 2020.

An aging population, attrition and demand for high-quality care also push the call for more nurses. Government pressure is doing the same.

In 2002, Arizona legislators passed a bill charging colleges and universities with expanding nursing programs to graduate 2,000 students by 2007, among other things. The most recent statistics from the Arizona Board of Nursing indicated the graduation pace is falling slightly short of that goal.

That year, programs statewide graduated about 1,250 students, the state nursing board said.

By that time, UA was developing its 14-month program, College of Nursing Dean Marjorie A. Isenberg said.

The program is open to students with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree, though there are stiff prerequisites. Those include anatomy, microbiology, developmental psychology and statistics.

“We decided to create a different applicant pool,” Isenberg said. But the college didn’t have the finances to create a new program specifically for students with no prior nurse training.

It costs $27,500 per student to offer the program, she said. But instead of UA or the state covering the costs, UA’s partners – UMC, Tucson Medical Center and Carondelet – pick up the tab.

The college, which is celebrating its 50-year anniversary, introduced its first fast-track class of 48 students in 2003 and is negotiating with a potential fourth medical partner, Isenberg said.

If all goes well, Isenberg said, the college will boost enrollment to 96 students next year, fulfilling part of the state mandate.

Two new faculty members will be hired to teach the new group of students, who begin coursework in June.

“I think very highly of the program and the students who come into the program,” Isenberg said, adding that the program’s graduation rate is about 99 percent.

Students spend five days a week in class and clinicals and can sit for the National Council Licensure Examination to become a registered nurse upon graduation.

“We need to know how to do things better in the health care industry,” Isenberg said, “and I’m hopeful these students, with their varying perspectives, will be able to accomplish that.”

Minnesota native Bee Schlotec exchanged her career in law for a chance to fast-track her nursing education.

“When I came here, I knew I didn’t want to go into law, so I didn’t take the bar (examination),” the recent UA graduate said.

“I heard about this program. It’s like the light went off,” said Schlotec, 36, who will work in one of UMC’s intensive care units.

“There needs to be more programs like this. I don’t think I would be a nurse if not for it,” she said.

Schlotec is a former business litigation attorney, and her peers included a one-time corporate airline pilot, elementary school teacher, chef, bartender and accountant.

“They have new eyes and do things differently,” said Wes Colvin, chief operating officer of Carondelet, which is also working with PCC and the Rio Salado College in the Maricopa Community College District.

That’s one reason industry partners take a special interest in such programs, Colvin said.

“They ask questions about whether there is a better way to do things,” he said, “if there is a more efficient way.”

Wesley Baker was trained to be a corporate airline pilot but had a special affinity for nursing. Life changed after he was grounded when the cancer he’d had since age 19, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, returned.

“The way it worked out is really amazing,” said Baker, 29, who will work in UMC’s pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant unit – where he received his bone marrow transplant years ago.

Baker also said he’s “glad about completing the program,” but he does see one drawback: the steep learning curve.

“It’s like drinking out of a water hose. Everything you get, you’ve got to remember immediately,” he said. “People in the traditional program have more time and a better chance of getting a little bit more experience.”

Others also have concerns about fast-track programs.

“As they’ve doubled, they’ve found some unintended consequences,” said Pamela Randolph of the state nursing board.

Between the traditional and shorter-term programs, some clinical facilities have found themselves “overrun” with students, Randolph said.

“The concern was that this might jeopardize the care, and nurses were threatening to walk out if they had another student,” she said.

In some cases, students may not have the chance to get the full experience of a unit, especially if their clinical work falls during the summer, she added.

Another challenge is that with some programs running year-round, clinical sites have more people – new hires or students – to train at once.

“Because of all of these programs, we have a lot of new graduates. It seems like you plug a hole and a new one opens,” Randolph said.

But fast-tracking has advantages, she added.

“I think the programs that have gone through are really great efforts to meet this community’s need,” she said. “If you look at the growth in the programs, it’s pretty amazing what they’ve been able to do.”

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Interested in the University of Arizona’s accelerated program?

The College of Nursing is taking applications for the next class of 94 students, which will begin in June 2008. For more information, call 626-3808.

• Information sessions for the traditional nursing program will be held at the College of Nursing, 1305 N. Martin Ave., in Room 112:

Aug. 29 at 2 p.m.

Sept. 11 at 10 a.m.

Sept. 20 at 10 a.m.

Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.

Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.

Dec. 6 at 10 a.m.

• Information sessions for the accelerated 14-month nursing program will be held at UA’s College of Nursing, 1305 N. Martin Ave., in Room 105. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree to enroll in the fast-track program.

Sept. 11 at 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 2 at 5:30 pm.

Nov. 1 at 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m.

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Arizona State Board of Nursing figures on active and inactive nurses in the state as of Aug. 17:

• Title/ Active/ Inactive

Registered nurses/ 65,286/ 19,940

Licensed practical nurses/ 11,873/ 5,157

Certified nursing assistants/ 21,573/ 47,810

Nurse midwives/ 194/ 6

Clinical nurse specialists/ 151/ 1

Nurse anesthetists/ 480/ 1

Nurse practitioners/ 2,797/ 33

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Other nursing degree and program offerings in southern Arizona:

• Pima Community College: associate’s in nursing and a practical nurse certificate

• Tucson College: certified nursing assistant

• Grand Canyon University: bachelor of nursing

• University of Arizona: bachelor of nursing

• Northern Arizona University: Tucson campus offers a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a registered nurse to a bachelor of science in nursing program and a master of science in nursing online.

• University of Phoenix: bachelor of nursing

• Arizona State University: graduate certificate

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