CAC Issue Arizona's three public universities are located in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, leaving rural areas of the state unserved for academic programs in agriculture unless students matriculate to the University of Arizona.
Distance education allows students to complete a bachelor's degree without leaving their home towns.
Interactive television courses are offered in Yuma, Coolidge and on the University of Arizona campus as part of a collaboration between the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Central Arizona College's Signal Peak campus near Coolidge, and Arizona Western College in Yuma, using microwave television technology provided by Northern Arizona University. Specially equipped classrooms in all three locations enable students to interact with the teacher and each other simultaneously. Live class sessions are transmitted from Tucson to Yuma and Coolidge, and also from Yuma to Tucson. Students enroll at the community colleges for lower division coursework and then take the distance courses through NAU and the UA to complete their degrees. In the 2000, this cooperative inter-institutional arrangement enabled more than 70 students to take courses from the university of Arizona without leaving their home towns.