MATT HEISTAND/Arizona Daily Wildcat Business economics sophomore Melanie Rainer speaks out against a proposed tuition hike during a teleconference hosted by the Arizona Board of Regents yesterday evening. UA President Peter Likins has proposed a $300 increase for in-state students and a $1,000 increase for out-of-state students.

Melanie Ranier doesn't qualify for financial aid but has a hard time paying tuition.

Her parents are divorced, and her dad doesn't pay child support, which leaves her mom to solely support her college education.

Family finances were tight enough when Ranier's older sister paid tuition at the University of Arizona a few years back. If tuition increases next fall, Ranier's mom, a postal worker, will have to stretch her dollars a little further again.

Ranier, a business economics junior, is one of more than a dozen students statewide who asked the Arizona Board of Regents in a televised meeting yesterday to keep next fall's tuition low.

In the teleconference, members of the UA community were divided on whether tuition should be raised for next year. Two undergraduates and a handful of medical school students asked for little to no tuition increases, but law school students and faculty asked regents to increase tuition in the name of improving education at the university.

UA President Peter Likins will ask the Board of Regents at its April 25-26 meeting at Northern Arizona University to increase tuition by $300, or 12 percent, for in-state students and $1,000, or 9.7 percent, for out-of-state students.

One provision of Likins' plan gives $200 tuition waivers or discounts to all students residents and non-residents, who receive Pell grants. The waiver would lower next year's tuition increase to $100 for in-state and $800 for out-of-state UA students with the least means.

Under the Regents' formula, the state-wide financial aid pool would increase by more than $1.5 million if tuition is raised 12 percent.

However, that isn't nearly enough, said Student Regent Myrina Robinson, who voiced the oft-expressed sentiment of the evening that the state should be funding Arizona universities and financial aid to a greater extent.

Work and loans count for 67 percent of financial aid to students in the Arizona higher education system now. The other 33 percent of aid comes as scholarships, waivers and grants.

Waivers aside, the proposed tuition increases are too steep, said undergraduates at NAU, UA, Arizona State University and branch campuses.

NAU President John Haeger proposed raising tuition $290 for residents and $750 for out-of-state residents. Outgoing ASU President Lattie Coor proposed the biggest increase he's ever pitched, at $300 for in-state students and $700 for nonresidents.

"This 12 percent increase is going to put some students out of school if we do it all at once," said UA hydrology and water resources graduate student Noah Molotch.

Molotch was one of only two UA undergrads to speak at the meeting. Attendance was low because of student apathy, Molotch said, and because he believes the regents will raise tuition regardless of what students say.

The tuition debate addressed what the money from increased tuition would be used to provide access to higher education for as many Arizonans as possible and keeping UA education high quality while state funding declines.

Raising tuition is crucial to providing a valuable UA education and a diploma that means something, said Abbe Goncharsky, a third year student at the James E. Rogers College of Law.

Goncharsky asked the Regents to raise tuition and fees for law students by $500 to $13,606.

"I support a tuition increase for the benefit of the students," said John Hildebrand, a Regents Professor and director of neurobiology at the Arizona Research Labs.

Hildebrand said that although he identified with students who did not or could not afford to pay higher tuition, the costs of a better education justified higher costs.

"Should we think that having the second-lowest tuition in the land is a good thing? Do we really want only the education that can be had on the cheap?" Hildebrand asked.

Arizona's resident tuition fees are the second lowest in the country, and nonresident tuition ranks 31st nationally according to data provided by the regents.

But Ray Quintero, president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, said students already pay enough and, unlike the two student body presidents at ASU and NAU who support a 4 percent hike to cover inflation, Quintero does not want any tuition increase.

Furthermore, non-residents would each pay $649 more than the price their education actually costs, according to the university - effectively paying for other students' educations, if nonresident tuition were increased by $1,000, Quintero said.