Tuition was a hot topic on the minds of members of the Arizona Board of Regents yesterday.

Regents met in Tempe to discuss the Changing Directions initiative yesterday, which would allow the three universities to raise tuition, pursue different goals and restrict enrollment.

President Pete Likins presented the Arizona Board of Regents with a description of his Focused Excellence plan, which would limit the number of classes and majors offered at UA, increase admission requirements and possibly increase tuition.

Likins did not present any information to the regents that hinted at which programs could be cut or merged, nor did he quantify new admissions standards or tuition levels for the institution; but he did say the universities haven't done a good job of focusing their course offerings in the past.

"Frankly, that's something the universities don't do well. We haven't done a good job pruning the tree that is our university," he said.

He did, however, come to the meeting with a lengthy reports and graphs on why the regents should adopt Focused Excellence.

He pointed to drop in state funding over the past two decades, shrinking unrestricted dollars and Arizona's tuition levels as symptoms of a sick university system that can only be saved by the Changing Directions initiative.

Arizona now has the lowest tuition levels in the nation, down from 49th to 50th this year, according to UA figures.

Likins said that the Arizona Legislature also has a poor record of providing enough state financial aid to its students, growing much slower than the national average.

Despite having the lowest tuition in the nation, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education recently gave Arizona a D-minus in affordability for local residents.

The reason higher education in Arizona is so unaffordable is because additional expenses ÷ like books, living expenses and travel ÷ add up to more than $12,000 at the UA, a level that cannot be reached by the maximum federal Pell Grant of $4,000, according to UA figures.

Likins pointed to these numbers as a reason to raise tuition, while at the same time increasing institutional financial aid to increase Arizona's affordability.

"I would dearly love for the state of Arizona to take responsibility, but we cannot wait for the state to provide the necessary financial aid," he said.

"It costs over $12,000 to go to school here," Likins said. "It's not possible to make UA affordable without raising tuition."

The regents will not set tuition until they meet in April.

The university presidents tried to raise tuition 12 percent last April, but ultimately, the regents voted 6 to 5 in favor of a 4 percent increase to keep pace with inflation in higher education.

The regents also discussed the possibility of changing board of regents' policies yesterday to allow tuition to be increased above the current thresholds.

Existing policy prevents tuition levels at UA, ASU and NAU from exceeding the lower third of tuition rates across the country, meaning that tuition in Arizona can't exceed the 33rd percentile nationally.

Raising tuition to the 33rd percentile would mean Arizona students would pay $3,662 a year in tuition.

Likins said he would like to see UA's tuition increase beyond the 33rd percentile, but said tuition shouldn't surpass the national median of $4,036.

The increase could mean UA students would be paying $1,100 more each year in tuition.

Regents President Jack Jewett said he didn't want to see a "draconian increase" in tuition at the three state universities. He said there may be qualified students at the universities who would drop out because they have trouble paying their $2,500 tuition and don't even want to attempt paying more.

"There are a lot of unintended consequences and I don't want to leave some students behind," he said.

Regent Chris Herstam said raising tuition would send the wrong message to the Legislature.

"I don't want to let them off the hook that easily," he said.

Many of the regents said they would support a tuition increase above the 33rd percentile if financial aid were to be increased, as well.