Two Arizona law schools may have a tuition increase

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the governor's office recommended that the two state law schools raise tuition to keep up with similar schools.

University of Arizona President Manuel Pacheco and Arizona State University President Lattie Coor urged the senators to allow the Arizona Board of Regents to deal with the tuition suggestion rather than legislate a hike.

Coor said that in state law, tuition had doubled in just the past two years.

Frank Besnette, executive director of the board, said the regents would look at the recommendation, but that the law schools' tuitions had already been raised $1,000 each of the past two years.

"The rate of increase is what impacts students in the short run," Besnette said.

Recommendations on the number of credit hours professors teach and the fate of the Arizona International Campus of the UA were also discussed.

Both Pacheco and Coor criticized the JLBC use of credit hours to determine the amount of time spent teaching.

Citing statistics that showed the average professor in Arizona taught 5.81 credit hours per semester, John Lee, JLBC analyst, presented a plan that would direct $8.2 million to a bonus system for professors who teach nine or more credit hours per semester.

Rhonda Wilson, president of the Associated Students of the UA, agreed with Pacheco and Coor.

"I think we're kind of jeopardizing quality of faculty student interaction for quantity," Wilson said.

On AIC, Pacheco again said the threat of closing the campus was "ill-advised" and would make it difficult to get to 300 students.

A JLBC recommendation states that if the campus does not have 300 students by Oct. 1, it will be forced to shut down.

Pacheco said that these hearings allow the university to try and tell the Legislature what it needs.

"Our intent at this particular time is simply to tell them what our needs are," Pacheco said before the hearing.

He said it would be weeks before the university gets a "good notion" of what the Legislature will do with its budget.

Pacheco said he had met with 30 state legislatures this week, but said, "It's really too early to tell how receptive they are."

The Legislature has a self-imposed 65-day deadline to establish a state budget.