Administrators are close to proposing a $1,000 tuition increase for resident undergraduates and a $1,250 increase for resident graduate students, Provost George Davis said yesterday.

Although President Pete Likins will not officially announce his tuition proposal until Monday, Davis said that officials have zeroed in on those numbers. Student leaders may still attempt to influence the final proposal between now and Monday.

Davis added that administrators are likely to propose a $1,250 increase for out-of-state undergraduates and a $1,500 increase for out-of-state graduate students.

"Look at the environment we're in right now," Davis said. "We need money to be able to support our programs."

Money has been hard to come by for the UA. Over the past two years the state has cut $44 million from the university's budget, causing a financial crisis that has been exacerbated by UA's low tuition, Davis said.

Because UA currently has the lowest tuition in the country, administrators have said they want to eventually raise tuition to the top of the bottom one-third percentile, meaning UA will rank around 35th rather than 50th.

That goal would be realized with a $1,000 tuition increase.

In order to offset the impact of a tuition increase on needy students, administrators have pledged a dramatic increase in financial aid.

There will be an $11 million increase in financial aid for undergraduates and a $2.6 million increase in financial aid for graduate students in the drafted proposal, Davis said.

Melanie Rainer, UA student lobbyist, said that while she thinks a $1,000 increase is necessary, she opposes the preliminary tuition proposals because they include less financial aid than administrators originally promised.

"Right now (student lobbyists) are trying to ensure what we saw yesterday in the tweaking of the numbers is not going to be in the final plan because it's taking money away (from financial aid)," she said. "Somehow in the long run we end up with more money in buildings and structures."

"The most recent plan is not going to make the university more affordable," Rainer said.

Pete Morris, president of the graduate and professional student council, said that administrators must pledge more financial aid to graduate students before he endorses a $1,250 increase.

"We cannot go to the Board of Regents and support a hike of that magnitude if people in need aren't going to be supported financially," he said. "If we reduce access to graduate students, then the administration will have failed in what it set out to do, improve accessibility to UA."

Davis said that administrators are working to ensure financial support for graduate teaching and research assistants, but there is no provision yet for needy graduate students. Administrators plan to raise half-time graduate teaching assistant waivers from 25 percent to 50 percent. Graduate teaching assistants who work one-third or one-quarter time will have their waiver raised from 12.5 percent to 25 percent.

The $2.6 million in financial aid for graduate students also includes additional money to help those graduate teaching assistants who are not fully protected from a tuition increase after the amount of the waiver is raised, Davis said.

However, if administration does not guarantee additional aid to needy graduate students, there will be consequences, Morris said.

"It appears we could lose more than 200 students," he said.