RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

and CARLI BROSSEAU

news@tucsoncitizen.com

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tucson late Friday to stop the closure of the Tucson Citizen, which was announced by the Citizen’s owners early Friday.

The lawsuit said closing the Citizen stemmed from an agreement between Gannett and Lee Enterprises Inc., owner of the Arizona Daily Star, to eliminate competition and increase profits to both companies.

The case has been assigned to Judge Raner Collins, but Goddard said in a phone interview Friday night that his staff could not reach Collins to “express the urgency of the case.”

“Usually there is some district judge to handle emergency motions and we are trying to find one,” Goddard said. “But I’m not at all certain we will be able to find one; it is a small panel in Tucson.”

Kate Marymont, vice president of news for the Gannett Co. Inc., told Citizen employees Friday that the last print edition would be Saturday. Gannett will continue to run a “modified” Web site of daily commentary and opinion with a weekly insert of editorial content appearing in the Star, she said.

She said two people accepted positions with www.tucsoncitizen.com but declined to say how many staffers the Web site would eventually hire.

“That’s my starting point,” Marymont said.

A preliminary job description for those hired showed that the site would focus on the “watercooler buzz” of the day.

Staffers would likely link to other Web sites and blogs, offer an opinion and open the discussion to commenters in an online forum. The site would also incorporate social networking, the document showed.

The staff will be responsible for defining the Web site’s form, Marymont said. “I’ve left it to them.”

The recently launched Metromix entertainment hub will continue on a “provisional basis” only, Marymont said.

Gannett’s joint operating agreement with Lee Enterprises Inc. also will terminate Saturday, although the two companies will continue as business partners in Tucson Newspapers, a subsidiary that handles all noneditorial operations for both papers. The JOA has been in effect since 1940.

Under the arrangement, Gannett takes the unusual step of partnering with a newspaper publication in which it has no editorial say to retain its profit interest in the operation.

Lee and Gannett will continue to share equally in the operating costs and profits of Tucson Newspapers, also known as TNI Partners, just as they did with the JOA, CEO Mike Jameson said. TNI, though, will no longer receive the limited antitrust immunity offered JOAs under the Newspaper Preservation Act.

The 1970 act gives newspapers operating under a joint operating agreement an exemption from federal antitrust laws in the hopes of increasing editorial diversity in cities and towns.

The announcement brings to a close months of uncertainty for the paper. Gannett announced in January that it was offering the Citizen archives, Internet domain name and lists of subscribers and advertisers to potential buyers, but not its 50 percent share of the JOA. If no buyer came forward, it intended to close the paper March 21.

On March 17, Gannett delayed the closure, saying “viable” buyers had come forward. The paper has operated on a day-to-day basis since.

Marymont informed Citizen employees of the closure at 9:30 a.m. Friday, about 30 minutes after notifying interim Editor Jennifer Boice.

“This is not about the journalism,” Marymont said. “Do not in any way take this as a reflection on your journalism. You have done outstanding journalism for decades.”

Laid-off employees will receive a week’s pay for every year they’ve worked for the paper up to 26 weeks, with a two-week minimum.

Boice, who has worked at the Citizen for 25 years and was appointed interim editor in July, could not hold back tears when making the announcement

“It’s been a difficult time,” Boice said. “But it’s also been fun. We’ve had people, even when our time was limited, going all out on stories, doing an incredible job of keeping the newspaper not only going, but good. And I am really grateful to all the people here who have put forth their heart and soul and energy in letting us go out with our head held high.”

Goddard was informed of the Citizen’s pending closure when Stephen Hadland, CEO of the Santa Monica Media Co. and the final bidder in the sale, wrote a letter Friday morning asking Goddard to intervene.

“The Tucson Citizen has been systematically destroyed by its owners and I believe it remains a viable and popular newspaper in the community,” he wrote.

Goddard said Hadland’s request was compelling, especially after he spoke with Gannett representatives.

“Their lawyer was unable to tell me how the proposed Web site would serve Tucson as a separate editorial voice,” Goddard said. “We took action because there was nothing in front of us that indicated any commitment to a vigorous continuing presence for the Citizen in some form.”

Reached Friday at his Santa Monica office, Hadland said, “We were, we are and we remain a bona fide buyer. We made a substantial cash offer; we later amended the offer to close to half a million dollars and were told that nothing less than $800,000 would be acceptable.”

In addition, Hadland said, he was “amazed” that Gannett was shutting the printed paper and going to an online-only operation because during negotiations, “a printed edition was an absolute requirement of Gannett’s.”

“This is the biggest perversion of the Newspaper Preservation Act that I have ever witnessed,” said Hadland, who publishes five weekly papers in the Los Angeles area.

Goddard said the arrangement between Gannett and Lee did not, in his mind, “meet either the spirit or the intent of the (antitrust) exemption” granted through the federal act.

The U.S. Justice Department began an investigation into the sale of the Citizen in February, when potential buyers told Justice representatives they were being told by Gannett’s sales broker that the Citizen wasn’t a good deal because Gannett wasn’t selling its interest in the JOA.

Marymont confirmed discussions with Justice were ongoing for the past month, but would not say Justice insisted on having a Web site instead of completely closing the Citizen’s presence in Tucson.

She said Gannett had not determined the length of commitment to the new Web site, and that there “is no legal document” saying the site has to remain operational for a certain time.

“In our conversations with the Justice Department, it was agreed that it was important we sustain a second voice in the community,” Marymont said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said Friday that Justice “closed its investigation today and no enforcement action was taken.” She would give no further details.

National media experts had predicted the paper would never sell because, without the JOA, the Citizen was all loss and no profit.

Thus the paper appeared poised to be another casualty of a newspaper industry struggling to survive amid declining advertising revenue and Internet competition.

But the Citizen defied the odds, at least for a while, because of the federal investigation.

At least five people expressed interest in buying the Citizen. All decided against bidding when they couldn’t persuade Gannett to include the JOA in the sale.

The Citizen was started in 1870 as a weekly, the Arizona Citizen, preceding Arizona’s statehood. Its reporters were on the front lines covering everything from the raids of Pancho Villa to the first university-led space mission.

In its last two months, the paper reported on its own predicted demise.

“A newspaper doesn’t close, it dies, and the death leaves a hole in the community,” said Boice.

Judge may weigh in on print edition of Tucson Citizen

Continued from 2A

Other troubled newspapers

• Hearst Corp. printed the last edition of Seattle’s oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on March 16, turning it into an Internet-only news outlet with 20 staff members, down from more than 150.

• E.W. Scripps Co. in February closed the 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News, one of two daily newspapers in Denver.

• Employees of the San Francisco Chronicle were told in February to prepare for closure or massive layoffs.

• The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months.

• The Ann Arbor News announced in April it will close in July. In its place, the Web-based media company AnnArbor.com LLC will be launched, publishing continuously online and a print edition twice a week. About 272 employees remain at the News, and experts estimate that will fall to fewer than 50 for the Web venture.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

Two key leadership positions at the University or Arizona have been filled with interim leaders.

Jory Hancock, director of UA’s School of Dance, has been appointed interim dean of the College of Fine Arts.

He replaces Dean Maurice J. Sevigny, who announced last month he will retire a year earlier than planned.

In addition, Lynne O. Wood, UA deputy general counsel, will serve as interim vice president for legal affairs and interim general counsel.

She will replace Judith E. Leonard, who has taken the position of general counsel for the Smithsonian Institution.

Hancock will begin his interim position July 1, and Wood will begin June 6, UA leaders said.

The university will conduct an internal search for a permanent College of Fine Arts dean, Provost Meredith Hay said in a campus memo.

The position of UA general counsel will be permanently filled only after a national search, President Robert N. Shelton said in a news release.

Leslie Tolbert, vice president for research, graduate studies and economic development, will chair the search committee for general counsel.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

The Arizona Board of Regents has threatened to sue the Legislature if language in a proposed budget bill regarding sweeps of universities’ auxiliary funds is not removed.

“They can’t rewrite the law. These are not funds available to them and if we need to litigate to demonstrate that, we will,” said Fred DuVal, incoming vice president of the Board of Regents. “We will not be shy about it.”

But according to the chairman of the House Education Committee, the regents won’t have to sue.

“I just got done meeting with the lobbyists from the three universities and explained I want to prepare a memo to go out next week (to legislative leadership) that shows why we can’t do fund sweeps,” said Rep. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa.

Crandall said the lobbyists explained how the fund balances of auxiliaries, which are self-supporting units at the universities, are unavailable to the state.

“In some cases it doesn’t exist (as cash), it’s pledged to something else or it’s illegal,” Crandall said.

Auxiliary funds are essentially savings accounts for self-supporting university units such as the bookstores, residence halls, athletic departments and meal plan programs.

In the case of bookstores, the fund balance includes inventory, and thus isn’t cash. In other cases, fund balances are in programs funded through federal grants, which university leaders said is not subject to state legislative oversight or absorption.

The House Appropriations Committee met Tuesday to vote on a Republican package of 10 bills that would form the budget for the next fiscal year “if we have no other options available to us except cuts and sweeps,” Crandall said.

“We have to get it out of Appropriations before some (legislators) will even start talking about what our options are.”

That package included $394 million from “raiding fund balances in various state accounts.”

For the university system, that sweep would amount to about $90 million, more than half of which would come from the University of Arizona, said Greg Fahey, UA associate vice president for government relations.

Fahey said UA’s fund balance is about $47 million.

Auxiliary units develop budget reserves for a variety of reasons, including emergencies, to cover operating costs in an economic downturn and, in the case of residence halls, maintenance and new construction.

“It would be a catastrophe to lose this money that we’ve built up over careful management of these (auxiliary) activities,” Fahey said. “For instance, the bookstore wouldn’t have money to buy books. Dormitories wouldn’t have money for debt service and construction.”

Jaime Molera, a lobbyist for the regents who testified Tuesday before the House committee, said fund balances are also important to the universities because they affect the bond rating the institutions can get for new construction.

The more money a university has set aside, the higher its rating and the lower the interest rate on bonds, he said.

Crandall said university leaders need to take a deep breath and relax.

“Nobody has put out a working budget that solves the entire $3.2 billion shortfall,” he said. “Tuesday’s was the closest thing, and it has warts galore. But now it’s out of (Appropriations), so we can talk about what we need to do.”

The Arizona Republic contributed to this report.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

University commencements can sometimes produce widespread ennui among graduates and their well-wishers because of the excruciating length of the ceremonies.

There will be less chance of that rampant boredom at the 140th University of Arizona commencement this year because the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies are being shortened and separated by about 12 hours.

About 1,300 masters, specialist and doctoral degrees will be awarded by UA President Robert N. Shelton at 7:30 p.m. May 15 at McKale Memorial Center.

He’ll return at 8 a.m. May 16 to confer degrees upon the 4,895 undergraduates.

Many of those undergrads will have already participated in convocations at their individual colleges, which begin Wednesday with the College of Humanities graduate convocation.

Alan Weisman, UA associate professor of journalism and Latin American studies and author of “The World Without Us,” will be the keynote speaker at the May 15 ceremony.

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, will address the undergraduates May 16 and will receive an honorary degree.

UA will award a number of honorary degrees during the graduate commencement May 15, including:

• Doctor of Humanities to Nadine Mathis Basha, founder of the Children’s Action Alliance and Summa Associates, a management firm specializing in corporate child care and elder care services.

• Doctor of Science to Edward Perry Bass, president of Fine Line Inc. and founding trustee of the Philecology Trust, which funds select nonprofit ecological interests.

• Doctor of Fine Arts to UA alumnus John Kilkenny, executive vice president at Twentieth Century Fox and head of the studio’s visual effects department. Kilkenny is working with UA in exploring the development of the nation’s first professional visual effects production training program.

• Doctor of Letters to Steve W. Lynn, vice president of Tucson Electric Power Co. and a UA alumnus.

• Doctor of Humane Letters to Ned L. Norris Jr., chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and member of Shelton’s Native American Advisory Council,

• Doctor of Humane Letters to Cele Peterson, a fashion designer, entrepreneur, founder of the Tucson Children’s Museum and co-founder of Casa de Los Niños, the first crisis nursery in the U.S.

Six students will be honored during the undergraduate ceremony Saturday:

• Merrill P. Freeman Medals will be awarded to Jessica Anderson, a bachelor of science candidate and honors marketing major, and Craig Sheedy, an honors student with a double major in health sciences and molecular biophysics and physiology.

• Robie Gold Medals will be awarded to Joseph Fu, a bachelor of science candidate in molecular biology, microbiology and philosophy, and Justine Schluntz, a member of the UA swim team graduating summa cum laude from the College of Engineering with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.

• Robert Logan Nugent Medals will be awarded to Nancy Hernandez, graduating with a bachelor of science dual major in accounting and business economics, and Abraham Itty who will graduate summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in molecular and cellular biology and a bachelor of science in health sciences in physiology.

PCC commencement

Pima Community College, which is commemorating its 40th anniversary this year, will celebrate spring commencement at 7 p.m. May 21 at the Tucson Arena.

Heather Myers will be the keynote speaker for the ceremony, following PCC’s tradition of having a student address the graduating class.

Myers, who will receive an associate of business administration degree, was also the commencement speaker for Aztec Middle College’s first graduating class in 2000. She enrolled in Aztec after having a child at 16 and dropping out of high school. She received a high school diploma while getting college credit.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

It was billed as the event that would prove Arizona Stadium was a viable concert venue.

But the Last Smash Platinum Bash turned out to be a nearly $1 million bust for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona.

The concert, which mixed it up with rapper Jay-Z and pop star Kelly Clarkson, cost the UA student organization $1.4 million to stage, but brought in slightly more than $503,000.

Chris Nagata, incoming ASUA president, blamed the slow ticket sales on the economy and said this would not be the end of ASUA concerts at UA.

“No one predicted last May when we were planning that the economy would have such a major downturn,” Nagata said. “But we’re committed to concerts as recruiting and retention tools. Students want to come to a campus that provides them with opportunities like this.”

Nagata said the next ASUA concert will “minimize the financial risk” to the student group through sponsorships or community partnerships.

The concert loss will be partially covered by ASUA’s $350,000 emergency reserve. The remaining shortfall will be covered by a $567,000 loan from UA BookStore to be paid back over five years, said Frank Farias, executive director of bookstore operations.

ASUA and the bookstore have a revenue-sharing agreement that is renegotiated every five years. The most recent contract was signed this year and allocates $530,000 annually to ASUA from bookstore revenues.

To pay off the loan, that allocation will drop by $114,000 over the next five years, Farias said, meaning ASUA will receive $570,000 less from its primary source of funding than anticipated through 2014.

Farias said the contract with ASUA includes a stipulation that if the bookstore covers its operating costs, ASUA will receive 2 percent of the profits. If that happens, he said, ASUA’s share will be held by the bookstore “to accelerate the loan payments.”

The red ink has launched a Facebook group encouraging UA students to boycott a student fee that partially funds some ASUA programs and to demand that stipends paid to the ASUA president and two vice presidents be eliminated.

The ASUA president receives an annual $6,000 stipend, and the two vice presidents receive $4,500, Nagata said.

Vice President for Student Affairs Melissa Vito said concerts are always a risk.

“What’s kind of too bad about this is that student government had done a lot of concerts in the past that came in within budget,” Vito said.

“They had pages of data to support why these (performers) were selected and everyone who reviewed the proposal thought they would do well. . . . Their funding will be reduced by over $100,000 and that’s a hard consequence.”

Tommy Bruce, outgoing ASUA president, began planning the concert last May on the heels of a break-even McKale Center concert featuring Kanye West. About 9,000 tickets were sold to that event, bringing in about $550,000.

He said ASUA anticipated selling 17,000 tickets for last week’s event, based on the performers’ draw in cities similar in size to Tucson. Instead, only 6,100 tickets were sold, priced from $25 to $200. About 3,000 were given away in exchange for marketing and promotions services, Bruce said. About 200 of the $200 tickets were available and all were sold, he said.

Payments for Bash performers varied. Jay-Z got $750,000, Clarkson was paid $175,000, Third Eye Blind earned $85,000 and the Veronicas got $20,000.

ASUA spent about $100,000 on staging, lights, video, audio, parking, merchandise and safety and security personnel.

The concert was the first in Arizona Stadium since Fleetwood Mac performed in 1977.

Bruce, who has successfully fought tuition increases at UA and negotiated a predictability clause in the most recent tuition agreement, knows many students are focused on the concert losing money.

“It’s the furthest thing from an ideal situation, but it’s not the only thing I’ve done in my two years as president,” he said. “But it’s one of the most public things and you just roll with it, I guess.”

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

The University of Arizona has been reluctant to address specifically how much money this year’s massive campus reorganization would save, but Thursday at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting, the number was clear: $6 million.

The amount was detailed in a presentation on UA’s Academic Strategic Plan by Provost Meredith Hay.

Hay was joined by the provosts from Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University in reviewing for regents major campus academic changes.

Regents unanimously approved all three plans with no comments or questions.

Hay said “no rock was left unturned” during the shake-up at UA, which resulted in closing numerous underenrolled majors, creating the Colleges of Arts, Letters and Sciences and mergers of various departments.

The estimated savings are expected to come from consolidation of administrative and business functions in merged colleges and departments, as well as layoffs of employees in certain areas.

According to documents presented to regents, staff layoffs are expected in the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Science and University College, which is being eliminated. Further savings will be realized by using fewer adjuncts in the colleges of Science and Education, according to the report.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

University of Arizona football coach Mike Stoops will earn $1 million for the 2009 season and get a $100,000 raise each of the following four years, under a new contract extension approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.

The decision was not unanimous. Regents voted 6 to 1 Thursday to approve Stoops’ pay increase, with Dennis DeConcini voting against it.

“I find it hard to believe we’re going to approve this when we’re facing the (economic) problems we’re facing now,” DeConcini said.

The money will be paid by the UA athletic department, which operates independently from the rest of the university.

UA President Robert N. Shelton said bumping Stoop’s salary from $685,000 to $1 million would put him near the middle salary range for Pac-10 programs.

“He’s taken a program that was not reflective of the quality of this institution and he’s turned it around,” Shelton said, asking for the increase.

Stoops, 47, led UA to an 8-5 record last season and a victory over BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl – the Wildcats’ first postseason appearance, a win, in 10 years. Stoops, 25-34 in five seasons, made $685,288 a year in his old contract.

His base salary in 2009 will be $500,000 and he will make $500,000 for peripheral and related duties. His extension is until 2013, when he will make $1.4 million a year if he stays that long.

UA also is scheduled to pay new basketball coach Sean Miller $2 million a year as part of a five-year deal worth $11 million.

After the meeting, DeConcini said the contention that coach’s salaries are funded from ticket sales was a specious argument.

“These are public funds that come under the regents’ approval and we have an obligation to review and consider them well,” he said. “When we’re in the middle of a financial crisis and we don’t have to do it because he has 18 months left on his contract, well, it just looks bad to the public like, ‘They don’t care, it’s just another million dollars.’ ”

Under his new contract, Stoops would stand to make up to an additional $655,000 a year if he reaches these incentives:

• Athletic: Participation in a preseason game, $50,000; Pac-10 champion, $125,000; non-BCS bowl game, $75,000; BCS bowl other than national title game, $100,000; BCS national title game, $150,000

• BCS national rankings: 1-10, $50,000; 11-15, $40,000; 16-25; $30,000.

• Win-loss record for 12-game season (excludes preseason or bowls): 7-5, $40,000; 8-4, $50,000; 9-3, $60,000; 10-2, $70,000; 11-1, $80,000; 12-0, $90,000.

• Average home paid attendance: 48,001-50,000, $45,000; 50,000-plus, $60,0000

• Total season tickets sold: 35,000-40,000, $60,000; 40,000-45,000, $70,000; 45,001-plus, $80,000

• Coach of the year honors: Pac-10, $30,000; national, $50,000

If UA fires Stoops for cause, it is liable for salary due at the date of termination. If UA fires Stoops without cause, it must pay him one-half of the remaining value of the guaranteed compensation. If Stoops leaves before 2013, he must pay UA $250,000 in liquidated damages at Shelton’s discretion.

HOW THEY COMPARE

Estimated annual salaries of Pac-10 football coaches, not including incentives, according to published reports:

Coach, school Yearly salary

Pete Carroll, USC $4 million

Jeff Tedford, Cal $1.85 million

Steve Sarkisian, Wash. $1.75 million

Chip Kelly, Oregon $1.4 million

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA $1.25 million

Dennis Erickson, ASU $1.1 million

Mike Riley, Oregon St. $1.1 million

Mike Stoops, UA $1 million

Jim Harbaugh, Stanford $1 million

Paul Wulff, Washington St. $600,000

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

University of Arizona students will have to open their wallets a little wider this fall – but not as far as they feared.

The Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday approved Robert N. Shelton’s request for a temporary tuition surcharge, but at a lower rate than the UA president initially proposed.

Shelton decreased the UA surcharge from $1,100 for all enrollees to $766 for resident students and $966 for nonresidents.

Regents approved it by a 7-1 vote, with Student Regent David Martinez III voting no.

The surcharge – combined with the $545 tuition and fee increase approved in December – means in-state UA students will pay $6,842 next school year, a $1,310 increase over this year’s tuition. This represents the largest year-to-year dollar increase in tuition and fees in UA’s history.

Students from out of state will pay $22,251 instead of the $21,285 price tag approved in December.

A modified proposal from Arizona State University passed 6-2, with Martinez and Regent Robert Bulla voting no. A modified proposal from Northern Arizona University passed 7-1 with Martinez voting no.

ASU lowered its proposal from $1,200 for all students to $600 for residents and $800 for nonresidents, with an $80 health and wellness fee for all students. A regent motion, however, cut that to $510 for residents and $710 for nonresidents.

NAU’s proposal for a tuition surcharge of $350 for all students was approved for residents, but raised to $450 for nonresidents. Students who started on NAU’s guaranteed tuition plan will see no increase. All students there will be charged an information and technology fee of $72.

The surcharges will expire in one year. Of the revenue generated by their surcharges for need-based financial aid, NAU and UA will set aside 20 percent; ASU, 22 percent.

Shelton said UA’s surcharge will generate $18.7 million after $4.7 million is set aside for financial aid.

University presidents said Gov. Jan Brewer’s pledge of stimulus funding enabled them to lower proposed surcharges. Brewer announced she would give the universities maximum shares of the more than $1 billion in federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

About $830 million of the $1 billion is earmarked for K-12 and higher education. Brewer has discretion in dividing those funds, after federal requirements are met regarding backfilling a certain percentage of previous budget cuts.

University leaders had originally estimated about $225 million would be allocated to the state university system. After the meeting, Shelton said Brewer’s allocation is closer to $280 million of which 40 percent can be spent in fiscal 2010, beginning July 1.

The remaining 60 percent will be spent in fiscal 2011 – most of it to mitigate tuition increases, with a small percentage for “modernization and reform” required by the federal stimulus law.

Though lowered, the surcharges still amount to a midyear tuition increase for students, who opposed the fee no matter how small. A few dozen students showed up to silently protest the tuition increase, holding signs that read, “Do you value my future?” “No books for a year” and “Don’t turn away future teachers.”

UA political science sophomore Emily May appreciated that the surcharge was nearly halved but said it was small comfort.

“Everyone is going to have to start budgeting for more tuition, more tuition, then just cross our fingers,” she said. “Hopefully, it won’t get too high that I have to stop coming to school.”

Regent Fred DuVal, however, warned that more tuition increases and possible surcharges are likely.

“We’ve heard the message from the e-mails,” DuVal said. “And today is a response to the pain that exists with Arizona families. We get it, we heard it, but we haven’t avoided (increases). We’ve simply deferred a bigger price tag at the back end of the three-year stimulus.”

Modeling presented by the regents estimates that if state funding for the universities remains stagnant, UA would need to raise tuition about $600 in the 2010-11 academic year and then $2,799 for 2011-12 to fund expected increases in enrollment. The large increase between those years represents the “funding cliff” predicted when federal stimulus monies run out.

Brewer was at the meeting for about 20 minutes and gave a statement committing the money to the universities, saying she wanted it used specifically to mitigate tuition increases. In addition, the governor said the universities need to present plans by fall for new business models.

“The fact of the matter is once these federal dollars are used up, our university system will likely face another huge financial shortfall,” Brewer said. “Thus, you need to begin preparations immediately for the day that these federal dollars disappear.

“By this fall, I want to see a new business model that is accountable, predictable and affordable to taxpayers, parents and students.”

Tuition increases

Students OK’d in Dec. With surcharge

Resident undergraduates: $6,076 $6,842

Nonresident undergraduates: $21,285 $22,251

Resident graduates: $6,866 $7,632

Nonresident graduates: $21,578 $22,544

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

Pima Community College Chancellor Roy Flores announced late last month that the No. 1 step in dealing with state budget cuts would be reducing administrative positions.

The first evidence of that is a shakeup at the East and West campuses, effective July 1, reducing the number of division deans from seven to five.

Thomas Tomasky and Ricardo Castro-Salazar, the two East Campus division deans, will return to faculty positions, according to an e-mail sent to West Campus employees Friday.

West Campus President Lou Albert sent the e-mail, explaining that just one of the East Campus dean positions would be filled as the college tries “to reduce expenses while maintaining services for our students and our community” in light of state budget cuts and declining real estate values.

The college is funded through tuition, property taxes and state allocations.

The lone East Campus dean position will be filled by John Gillis, who is division dean of the health-related professions and the fitness and sport sciences programs at the West Campus, Albert wrote.

Gillis’ responsibilities will be redistributed among the four division deans remaining after he leaves.

Gillis said the move made sense because East Campus needed a dean and West Campus had a surfeit.

“It’s making a decision that benefits the wider college,” Gillis said.

Castro-Salazar said Wednesday the move to a faculty position was his choice.

“The main consideration was my family,” he said. “My wife is in a Ph.D. program at (the University of Arizona) and I want to be able to support her and we have a 2-year-old. The chancellor is being very wise and very humane in the way he has approached this whole (budget cut) issue, including personal decisions into his equations.”

Tomasky did not return calls seeking comment and college spokeswoman Rachelle Howell did not know if his return to a faculty position was voluntary.

Albert said Wednesday that the redeployment will cause the remaining deans to “work a little harder and certainly smarter,” but he appreciated managing the budget cuts with attrition and realignment rather than layoffs or furloughs.

“I’m convinced this is a way we can save some money and still not miss a beat,” Albert said.

He did not know exactly how much money would be saved by losing one dean position. Howell said specifics on money saved were not immediately available.

Howell said the shifting of deans is just “one piece of a large, complex picture” of Pima’s attempts to deal with more than $5 million in state budget cuts this year.

Other measures include travel restrictions, deferring replacing equipment, eliminating noncritical employee training and a hiring freeze on all nonfaculty positions.

The measures are taken to prevent layoffs and furloughs, Howell said.

The college board passed a $2 per credit hour tuition increase last month upon advice from Flores that, without it, staff would have to be laid off or take furlough days.

Howell said there have been no other reductions in division deans at the college’s four other campuses. Those campuses have between one and three division deans, according to PCC’s Web site.

RENÉE SCHAFER HORTON

rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

By combining federal grants, loans and his salary from part-time jobs, University of Arizona junior Kyle Versluis has been able to cover the costs of his education without spending hours filling out scholarship applications or surfing scholarship Web sites.

If the Arizona Board of Regents approves proposed tuition surcharges at its meeting Thursday, that will change.

“I’m going to do everything I can to stay in school, but the way it looks, it’ll be hard,” Versluis said. “Everyone’s not giving away as much money because everyone is feeling the economic struggle and (all the students) are out there trying to get their little bit of the pie.”

Universities, colleges and nonprofit organizations are noticing increases of up to 40 percent in scholarship applications as high school graduates and current college students search for solutions to an economic perfect storm: parental job losses, unprecedented tuition hikes and stagnant donations to scholarship funds.

At UA, scholarship applications are up about 17 percent compared with last year at this time, according to John Nametz, director of the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Perhaps more telling, Nametz said, is that there has been a 30 percent increase in the number of “change of circumstance” forms filed by students this year over last.

Those forms allow current UA students to explain changes in their financial status due to family illness or job loss.

“I expect we’ll get more of those as the months go on,” Nametz said. “I can’t emphasize enough that students need to let us know if there’s a change in their economic situation.”

Cheryl House, executive director of the Pima Community College Foundation, said the organization had received 1,600 applications as of mid-April.

“Yikes,” House said when looking at the numbers.

“Our deadline is May 29, and last year at that time, we had only 1,400.”

Wray Milam is a PCC student hoping to transfer to UA sometime within the next year.

“I applied for six scholarships and I got two, which is pretty good,” Milam said. “If I didn’t have these scholarships, that’s it. I wouldn’t be in school because I’d have to work full time. All my friends are looking on Web sites every which way to find more money.”

Internet scholarship search sites and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, are two bellwethers of interest in scholarships nationwide.

FastWeb.com, a popular scholarship search site, reported last week that its seasonal spike in Internet traffic this year is at 20 percent, compared with the usual 5 percent to 10 percent.

FAFSA applications are also up nationally. The FAFSA is the first step in applying for federal grants awarded by economic need, federally subsidized loans and many scholarships offered by individual colleges and universities.

At UA, FAFSA applications are up 16.5 percent over last year at this time, said Nametz. ASU has noticed a 40 percent increase, according to Craig Fennell, ASU’s executive director of student financial assistance.

Times are so tight that even nonprofits that don’t provide scholarship assistance are getting pleading phone calls.

“I’m getting a lot of requests from people asking if we can provide scholarship assistance,” said Kelly Langford, president and CEO of the Tucson Urban League Inc.

“And the interesting thing is the requests are beyond the traditional two-year or undergraduate students,” he said. “We’re getting people looking for additional resources to go to trade schools or get retraining. I have to tell them we don’t do that kind of thing.”

While there has been an increase in applications for scholarships – as opposed to merit aid, which is based on grades, or loans, which have to be paid back – donations to funds supporting scholarships are not rising to meet the need, officials said.

“Donations have not gone down, but they haven’t gone up either,” said House, who manages the PCC foundation’s $3.4 million endowment.

“People still see education as an important economic driver that will help the situation get better, so our long-time donors are sticking with us. But we’re not necessarily getting new ones.”

The UA Foundation, which annually funds 1,000 student scholarships, has experienced a drop in giving, said John Brown, UA Foundation communications and marketing director.

“We’ve seen an overall decline in gifts of about 20 percent,” Brown said.

In spite of that, Brown said scholarships remain a popular designation for those who do donate to the foundation, which has an endowment of $225 million.

UA President Robert N. Shelton, who is asking for a $1,100 surcharge in the fall on top of a $545 tuition increase approved in December, has said he will set aside 17 percent to 20 percent of the revenue generated from the surcharge for financial aid.

If the surcharge is approved, tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students will be more than $7,100 next year.

Not all students are convinced that the scholarship “set aside” from the surcharge will help them, however.

“It can’t cover everyone,” said Kelsey LoDuca, a junior at UA. “They say they aren’t going to leave anyone behind with this increase, but . . . in this state, where there are no jobs, to come up with another $1,100 over three months is just too much.”

Shelton, along with presidents from Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University, say the surcharges they are requesting are necessary in light of massive state budget cuts.

The Legislature, needing to make up billions in revenue losses, cut higher education funding by $191 million this year. UA alone took a $77 million hit, Shelton expects further cuts.

According to a survey released last week by the Association of Governing Board of Universities and Colleges, Arizona has been hit particularly hard by the nationwide economic crisis.

The “Public Institution and University System Financial Conditions Survey” reports that colleges and universities in 14 states, including Arizona, are experiencing their own version of a “misery index” due to three consecutive years of state budget reductions, midyear budget reductions this year and anticipated cuts after July 1.

The state’s economic misery doesn’t mean a lot to students having to pay their bills, though.

Versluis, a junior in hydrology, hopes that he’s able to continue at UA, but he said it all depends on the tuition surcharge.

“The thing that upsets me is they are doing this with only a month left in school,” he said. “I already filed my FAFSA and was awarded a Pell grant and a Safford loan and I figured out I’ve got just enough to cover my tuition, books and the part of my rent not covered by (income from) my job.

“But if I have to pay another $1,100, it really will be a choice of having a roof over my head or going to school.”

Scholarship tips

• Start early. Many scholarships have spring deadlines.

• Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, even if you think your family makes too much money. Colleges and some private scholarship providers use the FAFSA to determine scholarship eligibility.

• Check college and university Web sites for scholarship lists.

• Register at FastWeb.com, a free site that allows you to customize your search for scholarships.

• Look for scholarships from your employer, civic groups and the individual school within your college or university.

• Read eligibility requirements carefully. Some organizations discard scholarship applications that are incomplete.

• Check with the financial-aid office at the college or university. They may be able to refer you to scholarships you didn’t know about.

The Arizona Republic

Watch those deadlines

• The deadline to apply for scholarships offered through the Pima Community College Foundation is May 29. Call 206-4646 or e-mail foundation@pima.edu for more information.

• The University of Arizona’s Office of Student Financial Aid hosts a scholarship Web site at financialaid.arizona.edu/scholarships/. Deadlines for many of the scholarships have passed, but there are nearly 50 that have deadlines after Friday.

Many of the scholarships have unique restrictions, such as a scholarship only open to those of Greek ancestry or one offered by New Look Laser Tatoo Removal that is only open to students studying nursing, medicine, natural or applied sciences, or engineering.