A widely-traveled Pima Community College instructor will launch the school’s new push to solicit students from China and around the globe.
Ricardo Castro Salazar, who has lived in seven countries and taught in three, has been hired on an acting basis to fill the recently-created job of vice president for international development, the school announced.
The position, which pays about $117,000 a year, is one of several six-figure posts the college plans to add during the next three years in hopes of reviving its faltering international program.
If successful, the effort could add up to $5 million a year to the college’s coffers, officials have said.
Castro Salazar, who has worked at PCC for 20 years in various roles and now teaches history and politics, is due to start his new job early next year.
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He holds a doctorate degree in education, master’s degrees in education, international relations and Latin American studies and a bachelor’s degree in management. He has lived and studied in Mexico, Holland, Brazil, Canada, China and the United Kingdom and has taught in Canada and Mexico, a college news release said.
“Ricardo’s education and experience make him ideally suited for the challenge before us. He is a well-respected member of the international community and a passionate advocate for closer ties with other countries, particularly Mexico,” PCC Chancellor Lee Lambert said in an email to employees.
The move to attract foreign students, who typically pay much higher tuition, comes amid a steep plunge in enrollment at home.
Since 2011, PCC has lost the equivalent of 5,000 full-time students, roughly the entire population of one if its six campuses.
International enrollment has declined by about 80 percent over the past decade, from 750 students to 135 last school year, recent administrative reports said.
Lambert hopes to attract 1,000 foreign students a year by the 2017-18 school year, assuming PCC can shed a probation sanction imposed by its accreditor last year over mismanagement and lax governance. The accreditor’s decision is due in February.
Castro Salazar’s contract runs to the end of this school year with an option to renew. He’ll be eligible to apply for the permanent post, though there are no immediate plans for a permanent hire, officials said.
