Napolitano concerned hikes make college 'inaccessible'

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano criticized recently approved university tuition hikes at her weekly press conference yesterday, saying she worries the middle class is being priced out of higher education in Arizona.

"I am concerned about the tuition hikes," Napolitano said. "I am concerned that we are making a college-level education more inaccessible, particularly to students from what I would call middle-income families."

Earlier this month, by a vote of 8-1, the Arizona Board of Regents approved a $494 increase in in-state tuition at the UA and $700 for nonresidents.

Students at Arizona State and Northern Arizona universities will also face a major increase for the second time in a year.

Napolitano said she was opposed to the hikes and is going to actively oppose any future hikes.

"They've done a pretty good job at segregating financial aid for low-income students to preserve access to them, but that's a big increase for some families to take," Napolitano said. "We are going to watch that situation very closely."

The newest batch of tuition hikes, added to the $1,000 hike passed last year, have raised the cost of resident undergraduate tuition and fees at the UA to $4,087.

The board of regents has been trying to raise tuition to the top of the bottom third of state universities nationwide as part of their Changing Directions initiative, and the recent increases have done that, said Regents President Chris Herstam.

"In the future, I think you are only going to see inflationary increases," Herstam said.

There is increasing concern that middle-class students are getting squeezed most by this. - Regents President Chris Herstam

Napolitano approves the regents' goal but said tuition increases have put a university education beyond the reach of some students.

While university officials have blamed the steep increases on diminishing state funding, Napolitano attributed it to poor planning and said she hoped any future hikes would be limited to the cost of inflation.

"One of the reasons we've had two big jumps in several successive years is because they didn't keep pace through the '90s and they had to do some big step increases to get up there," Napolitano said. "I would hope at this point that we are done with those big step increases and at the most we'd be looking at small inflationary adjustments."

Herstam called the increase a "painful" decision and said he will not support anything more than single-digit hikes in the future, but he says middle-class students should be able to afford tuition with the new hikes.

"I do think when comparing our public university system and its prices with the rest of the country - I think they are affordable," Herstam said. However, he added that further hikes could limit access.

"There is increasing concern that middle-class students are getting squeezed most by this," Herstam said.

Napolitano would not say whether she would support a proposal that would let community colleges give out certain four-year degrees as a means of making higher education more accessible, but she said that something must be done to make sure students can afford to graduate.

"I think I am very sensitive to the fact that we want to increase the number of Arizona students getting college degrees ... not just enrolling in community colleges and universities but graduating from community colleges and universities," Napolitano said.

"One of the next issues presidents and the board ought to take up is how do you support not only getting students into school but out of school with a degree?"

Napolitano said she had made the board of regents aware of her disapproval.

Herstam said ultimately space - and not cost - will be the major factor limiting who can access higher education in Arizona.

There are 105,000 degree-seeking undergraduate students attending the state's universities; by 2014, that number is likely to reach 175,000.

The enrollment boom coupled with Arizona's lack of a private university system will make overhauling the university system necessary, Herstam said.

"The board of regents in the next six months is going to take a look at our university system today and see whether it will have the capacity down the road to provide undergraduate education to our growing population," Herstam said.

Newly appointed Regent Ernest Calder—n, the lone dissenting vote against tuition hikes, said the governor's concerns are exactly what kept him from supporting a tuition boost.

"I think the tuition increases are inadvertently precluding the middle class families from higher education," Calder—n said. "They can't afford it. The bottom line is $490 is a lot of money. If my mortgage went up 50 percent in one year, I couldn't afford it, and I am a lawyer."

Napolitano, an ex-officio member of the board of regents, did not attend the tuition hearings.

President Peter Likins has said students shouldn't expect any major tuition hikes from this point on.