WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat ASUA President Doug Hartz (right) and UA Provost George Davis listen to a comment during last night's Arizona Board of Regents budget teleconference. The conference allowed students to voice their opinions about budget proposals.

Students across Arizona yesterday voiced varying opinions on the appropriate size of a tuition hike, but many agreed regents and administrators must lobby lawmakers more effectively to protect the universities from future budget cuts.

Speaking at the last tuition public forum before the Arizona Board of Regents' tuition-setting meeting yesterday, several people called for graduated tuition hikes that wouldn't impact students as drastically as the $1,000 increase proposed by Arizona's three university presidents.

Students, they said, shouldn't be forced to bear such a hefty burden, because the university's budget shortfall is the state Legislature's fault.

Our students are not responsible for the cuts the universities are experiencing now. - Rosie Lopez

Interfraternity Council President Josh Surridge told the regents that a $1,000 hike would especially burden greek students, who have to pay dues to their organizations, and asked them to spread the increase over two years.

"That would really help the students involved in co-curricular activities that have financial obligations to their organizations," said Surridge, who was joined by PanHellenic Council Vice President Brook Camerer in support of a graduated hike.

Some sorority members pay more than $5,000 a year to cover room and board in the chapter's house, as well as costs for parties and other events.

Several other students, speaking over videoconference from across Arizona, echoed Surridge and Camerer's sentiments, saying graduated tuition hikes would make life more fair to students who have to work or support families.

However, other students did support a large immediate hike, joining presidents and student lobbyists from all three universities in saying the increase is necessary to prevent permanent damage from being inflicted.

"We can't expect to have the school we want and need for nothing," said Kaleb Brimhall, an ASU electrical engineering sophomore. "I'll be paying all $1,000 of it."

Despite promises from regents and administrators that large portions of tuition hike revenue would be diverted to financial aid, some students still wondered if they could afford to attend Arizona's universities once tuition rises.

Undeclared freshman Adam Brotman pays his own way through school, and won't be able to qualify for in-state tuition for at least a year. He said that if he has to pay an extra $1,250, the proposed increase for out-of-state undergraduates, he would need to take at least one extra job to afford it.

"My friends actually didn't think I'd make it this far and I have," Brotman said. "I've proven them wrong, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep proving them wrong."

President Pete Likins has proposed a plan that would protect the UA's neediest students ÷ those who qualify for federal Pell Grants ÷ from having to pay more, but has said some students still might have a difficult time affording a UA education.

Likins, who was visiting sister schools in Mexico yesterday, spoke by prerecorded video at yesterday's forum, saying he knew some students would be financially hurt by the hike.

"I'm sure I'll discover that for some of you there will be an adverse impact," he said.

Yesterday's forum came on the same day Arizona's universities won a key victory in the state Legislature that will protect them from more budget cuts this year, but speakers said regents haven't been effective at lobbying lawmakers to keep from cutting university budgets.

"Our students are not responsible for the cuts the universities are experiencing now," said Rosie Lopez, a representative from a Hispanic community group representing low-income areas in Phoenix.

After the forum, board of regents President Jack Jewett and Student Regent Matthew Meaker said the universities have been lobbying legislators on students' behalf. About two weeks ago, Jewett and the three university presidents spoke to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

In those presentations, Likins blasted Republican legislators for considering plans to cut university budgets even as regents considered a large tuition increase.

Graduate students also had a strong presence at yesterday's forum, with many arguing in favor of better stipends and tuition remission for research assistants.

In Likins' tuition plan, teaching assistants are held harmless from an increase, while research assistants will have to pay the increase without seeing higher stipends.

That amounts to a salary cut, said Luisa Ikner, a research assistant in the department of soil, water and environmental sciences.

Pete Morris, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, said his organization is looking for funds that could be applied to aid for research assistants, but that the council will not support Likins' tuition proposal until he can guarantee that research assistants won't be hurt.

Likins has said he wants to protect research assistants, but that he wouldn't be able to do it next year. At a forum earlier this month, he acknowledged the disparity wasn't fair, and assured Morris and other graduate students he would work to fix it.

Keren G. Raz contributed to this report.