Agriculture grad students, deans discuss enrollment policy

"Some of their requests are within our control, and some are above our heads," Associate Dean David Cox said. "We are going to do the best we can to help these students."

The college recently instituted a new policy, effective July 1, that requires graduate students on research and teaching assistantships to enroll in a minimum of 12 units per semester.

Previously, research and teaching assistants were required to enroll in six units per semester.

Students in the college requested a meeting with the dean to clarify issues and potential problems and to ask for changes in the new policy, said Brad Guay, a graduate student in the College of Agriculture.

The new policy would increase students' tuition bills from $642 for six units to $1,004 for 12 units per semester - a difference of $362, according to current tuition rates. Next year's tuition rates are expected to be set by the Arizona Board of Regents Thursday.

Addressing the six representative students last night, Dean Eugene Sander said he wanted to resolve the tuition issue.

"Our purpose here is to ameliorate the financial problems of students this would affect," he said.

"We want to get as close to a win-win situation as we can get, but we are going to have to reach some compromises."

The new policy was implemented to compensate for the University of Arizona's $1.8 million shortfall due to decreased enrollment. The university requested a reallocation of 1 percent of each college's budget, which translated to $404,500 from the College of Agriculture.

Because of the decreased budget, the college needed a way to recoup costs, Cox said.

Sander said the university had a real financial problem and the change was a long term financial solution for the College of Agriculture.

"Unfortunately, this institution hangs on the willingness of the regents to raise tuition rates," Sander said.

Another factor in the decision to implement the new policy was accounting for faculty time, he said.

"If teachers are spending several hours a week in labs with graduate students, we need to give them credit for the work they are doing," he said.

At the meeting, the students issued a letter to Sander, stating the five points they wanted an altered policy to address.

Included was an idea to "grandfather" students enrolled in the college previous to fall 1997. These students would not have to adhere to the new policy because they were admitted under different guidelines.

Students also asked for the establishment of transitional funds to compensate students who are not able to handle the new financial burden.

One of the biggest concerns, according to the letter, was restrictions on earning supplemental income.

Assisted students enrolled in 12 units cannot exceed half-time employment for on-campus jobs such as tutoring and lab assistants. For many students, these on-campus jobs can account for several thousand dollars in supplemental income, Guay said. Sander said he was unaware of this policy, set by the Arizona Board of Regents, before finalizing the new 12-unit enrollment policy.

"It has taken us three days to find out where that policy came from, and now we have to work around it," Sander said.

Most of the students at the meeting said they were worried fall tuition bills would come before they knew what their financial responsibility would be, but Sander tried to ease their concerns.

"We will let the students know about their financial responsibility well before the bill comes due," Sander said.

Sander promised a progress report from the executive council in the College of Agriculture in two weeks.

Despite the new requirements in the College of Agriculture, the Graduate College, which oversees all UA graduate programs, maintains a requirement of six units for full-time assistantship students, and nine units for regular full-time students.

Vern Johnson, associate dean of academic affairs, said a 12-unit policy has also been in effect in the College of Engineering and Mines since 1988. It is the only other 12-unit policy for research and teaching assistants at the UA.

"We think the policy is working fine, but the students that were first affected are now gone," Johnson said. "This is just standard policy for us now."