UA’s College of Pharmacy has proposed a tuition increase that would cause their students to pay $9,000 in differential tuition, beginning this summer.

Dean J. Lyle Bootman and Assistant Dean Richard Wiedhopf informed students of the tuition increase and spoke about the future of the college, at a meeting Monday in the College of Pharmacy.

Bootman said he and Weidhopf plan to submit a proposal to UA President Robert Shelton advising a $700 increase in the College of Pharmacy tuition.

This raise would be included in the university tuition and fee raises that Bootman said would amount to about a $2,000 increase for the pharmacy students.

“”We are considering proposing, in a letter to the president and the (Arizona) Board of Regents, (a plan) that would raise the tuition of the College of Pharmacy $700 for the year,”” Bootman said. “”The current differential tuition is $8,300 we are going to raise it to $9,000 beginning July 1, 2009.””

He said the College of Pharmacy is already at around $1 million in debt and they are trying to reduce the impact by raising tuition.

“”We are only going to gain about $210,000 that would generate to the college, even though we have lost close to a million,”” Boatman said. “”Some advisors recommend that I try and make up the million dollars that we have lost this year.””

The only way to quickly recoup the full $1 million would be to increase the differential by 33 percent per student, he said.

“”That would be a hike that would be $2,800 to each student in a given year. That would not be good news for any of us,”” Boatman said. “”I don’t want to collect it. I don’t want to tell you about it.””

At the meeting, there was some confusion amongst students regarding where the College of Pharmacy actually gets its funding.

Bootman said there are five major sources: The state of Arizona writes a check to the school, 75 percent of pharmacy student tuition, philanthropy, grants, and money from patient care.

Bootman said he is making necessary cuts that will allow the school to retain the exceptional level of faculty currently at the school.

He said some staff are currently making $25,000 less than the average pharmacist, without including grants or outside projects.

Along with faculty retention, Bootman said he is working to keep the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center adequately funded. Since it is a relatively small program, there has been talk about either shutting it down or making very drastic cuts.

Due to the quality of the poison center, the deans said they are working to reduce the cuts to that particular program.

Although they are raising tuition, the College of Pharmacy is now going to pay for student’s white-coats, provide them with 1,000 free Xerox copies, and pay for the four memberships to pharmaceutical organizations that students are required to have.

While Bootman emphasized the facts and realities of the cuts, Wiedhopf spoke to the students more personally, saying that he has been associated with the university for over 40 years, and his main concerns lay with students and faculty.

“”We really care about this place. We have been here, we all went to school here and we know what it’s like. We are really interested in making sure that we treat you right. We care,”” Weidhopf said, “”This is the most difficult thing we have had to do in the 40-plus years we have been here.””