WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat Bryan York, a geography junior, reviews his notes between classes yesterday on Pima's West Campus.

With potential tuition raises and higher admissions standards at the UA, more students may be starting at Pima Community College next semester before finding their way to a university.

And while Pima has room for growth in its classes, its students face many challenges on the path to university transfer, said Dave Padgett, director of curriculum and articulation services at Pima.

In fact, almost 14 percent of Pima students who say they intend to transfer to universities never do.

"I don't think that starting at Pima would become a negative thing," said Ellen McGregor, research advanced analyst in Pima's Office of Institutional Research. "It only becomes negative if they don't finish."

Since 1995 (not including the 1999-2000 school year) an average of 1,118 students per year have transferred from Pima to UA, said Ann Huber, associate director of undergraduate admissions and director of the UA transfer center.

In the same time period, an average of 9,408 Pima students a year said that they intended to transfer to a university.

Some of these students may not really intend to transfer though, said PCC counselor Susan Rondeau. When students mark their intended program of study they may not always know the differences between programs intended for transfer and those that are not.

For example, an associate of arts degree is intended for transfer and an associate of applied arts is not, she said.

Major obstacles that keep some Pima students from transferring are long work hours ÷ many work more than 30 hours a week, while dealing with difficulties and family obligations, said Pima counselor Leticia Menchaca.

"Many of our students do have families, which is different than the traditional student at the U of A," she said.

"College students are stereotypically not really financially stable," said Steven Holley, a first-year liberal arts student at Pima.

Holley added that he thinks some students stay at Pima because it offers more course and registration flexibility than the university.

Many Pima students, who do not transfer to a university, finish two-year degrees and go on to work, while others look to non-traditional or online classes to continue their education.

"(A tuition increase) is really going to impact the non-traditional and the minority students. It will really pull it out of reach," Menchaca said.

About 85 percent of Pima students that transfer to public Arizona universities come to UA, according to the Arizona State System for Information on Student Transfer (ASSIST).

According to ASSIST, there are currently 8,049 Pima transfers at the UA, 771 at Arizona State University and 667 at Northern Arizona University.

Since the UA is home to the majority of Pima transfers, it works closely with Pima to ensure that the students who do transfer are prepared, Huber said.

"The university truly has a commitment to smooth the transition of transfer students and hopefully provide the information they need to transfer," she said.

Academic counselors at Pima prepare students for the transition by making sure they take the right classes, Rondeau said.

Rondeau teaches a two-credit course at Pima that is designed to help students transfer to UA. The course helps students navigate the university Web site, prepare resumes and cover letters and develop public speaking skills. Students in the course also take a university tour and hear from speakers about various aspects of university life.

"I think for the typical student, starting at Pima will give them the leg-up they need to be successful at the university," Rondeau said.

If the UA is unable to raise admissions standards it may start to defer students who do not meet existing standards to Pima as a condition of admission, said Rick Kroc, director of assessment and enrollment research.

By doing so, the UA hopes students will be better prepared for difficult university courses.

Many students come to the university lacking good study habits and necessary math skills, Kroc said.

"We want students that are well-prepared," he said.

Currently, in-state students that are in the top 50 percent of their class or have a 2.5 GPA are automatically admitted to the UA. The proposal would change the standards so that only the top 25 percent of high school graduating classes and those with a 3.0 GPA are automatically admitted.

The university cannot afford to deny admission to all students who do not meet the proposed standards, Kroc said. But it might require less prepared students to take courses at Pima as a condition of their admission to UA.

The ability to defer students to community colleges has been on the books since 1998, but the policy has never been put into action, Huber said.

Section 2-102 A3 of the Arizona Board of Regents Policy Manual states: "No more than 10 percent of a resident freshman class may be assigned, as a condition of admission, a prescribed course of study when the coursework is to be taken at a community college."

"When we enroll students we certainly want them to be successful," Huber said. "The better prepared a student is the better their experience is going to be."