The Arizona Board of Regents will meet at the University Medical Center today to begin discussing whether to change board policies to allow the UA to raise tuition and financial aid and allow colleges on campus to set tuition independently.

Two proposed plans, Changing Directions and Focused Excellence, would change Regents' policies now on the books.

Those changes include allowing the three universities to set different tuitions, and enabling various undergraduate and graduate colleges and departments within each university to set their own tuition.

Regents also plan to discuss coupling tuition increases with financial aid, repealing the 25 percent cap on out-of-state student enrollment and eliminating the policies that restrict university presidents from providing services in various counties.

If you go · A call to the audience is scheduled for 3:05 p.m.

Although the board will only be discussing the proposed changes to current board of regents policies, they plan to take action on the outcome of the discussion at their next meeting in January.

"We're changing policies that will allow for larger changes coming down the pipeline," said Student Regent Matt Meaker, who has a vote on the board.

The larger changes include differentiating each university's missions to make the UA more research-oriented, ASU an educational powerhouse and NAU a residential university.

The board of regents will begin discussing the possibility of allowing university presidents, deans and department heads to set their own, distinct tuition rates rather than conforming to one set tuition for the entire university system.

It is a good idea to amend the policy to allow for different tuitions because it allows the universities to evaluate their own needs, Meaker said.

As part of the discussion on tuition, university presidents are going to give the results of recent research on various tuition increases and the financial aid they can make available.

"We will evaluate how much the regents must set aside for need-based financial aid," said Jack Jewett, president of the board.

Melanie Rainer, co-director of Arizona Students' Association, the student lobbyist group, said that ASA is also working on figuring out how to mitigate the effect of a tuition increase on students pushing for more financial aid.

"Our No. 1 goal right now is, we realize tuition is going to go up, but we want to do something for students," she said.

Thursday's discussion on tuition and financial aid will signal that the board of regents and the presidents are ready to commit to redirecting the focus of the university system with regard to issues such as tuition, said Matt Ortega, the regents' spokesman.

"These types of changes are a sign that the board and the presidents are serious about Changing Directions, and they're serious about making some of these changes," he said.

Another change the regents will be discussing is the lifting of restrictions that limit the counties in which the universities can provide services.

"We'll be looking at possibly eliminating board policies limiting universities to specific boundaries," Jewett said. Hopefully this "will encourage collaborative effort on the part of the universities."

Also, the regents will discuss lifting the 25 percent cap on out-of-state student enrollment in order to allow presidents to make decisions without what Jewett called arbitrary enrollment cap.

He said that he does not foresee a negative impact on in-state admissions.

"We want presidents to be mindful that all qualified in-state residents be admitted," Jewett said. "The expectation is that (admissions) would not be motivated by out-of-state higher tuition."

Most of the changes are designed to give the presidents more freedom, Jewett said.

These changes will give "more authority to presidents heretofore encumbered by board policy," he said. "This will allow the universities to be more enterprise-oriented."

Focusing on the universities as collaborative business enterprises was a common theme at the last board of regents meeting in September, as the regents spoke about being more open to changes in order to adjust to the climate of decreased funding from the state.

Last year, the state Legislature cut $16 million from the university budgets. So far this year, legislators have asked for another 5 percent cut.

The Arizona Board of Regents discussion on Changing Directions will begin at 1:00 pm on Thursday at the Arizona Cancer Center, 1515 N. Campbell Ave. in the Peter Kiewit Auditorium.

ASA will hold a special session before the meeting to discuss Focused Excellence in the Forbes building, room 229 at 9:00 am.