Tuition dollars will be funding building renewal projects at the university this year, setting a "bad precedent" UA administrators hope won't be repeated next year.

Last week the Arizona Board of Regents gave the UA the authority to sell $20 million in certificates of participation - effectively bonds whose debt service will be funded by tuition.

$1.9 million of the $5.8 million debt for the Poetry Center will also be paid for tuition. The rest will be paid by gifts.

The need to fix streets, sidewalks and air conditioning units, among other things, has been pressing on the university for the past two years, UA administrators said.

But because the state Legislature hasn't funded building renewal for three years, administrators said their only option is to draw from tuition funds.

"The cost of replacement is more than the cost of renewal," President Peter Likins said. "We're really caught between a rock and a hard place. If we could pay for it any other way, we would eagerly do so."

In 1990, the state gave the university $95 million for building renewal. That shrunk to $44 million in 2001 - just 23 percent of what the university asked for - and vanished the following year.

"It was never 100 percent, but we were pretty happy with what we got," Dick Davis, assistant director of business services, said.

Likins said other university money acquired through gifts, research contracts and the Legislature is directed toward specific purposes, leaving the UA nowhere to draw from but tuition.

Ted Gates, assistant director for capital resources for ABOR, said the plan has the potential to raise tuition if the state fails to provide the funding in the future.

"It sets a very bad precedent," Gates said. "These issues are not going to go away. They're just going to be compounded over the years."

But Gates said not much could be done. "If you don't want your buildings falling apart, you're better off repairing them now."

Whether or not the Legislature takes the regents' decision as a sign that the university no longer needs the building renewal allocations could determine whether or not this use of tuition is a precedent or a one-time fluke, Gates said.

"We hope they don't infer we don't need it," Davis said. "We do. We need it desperately. And that's why we had to come up with an interim plan."

While Likins agreed that the use of tuition to pay for bonds for building renewal is a turn for the worse, he said he doesn't expect the Legislature to take it as a sign that it's off the hook.

"When tuition went up, the Legislature gave us more than it had in three years," he said. "There's no evidence of correlation."

Student Regent Danielle Kelling spoke up during the ABOR discussion on the behalf of Arizona Students Association, whose members were concerned with the use of tuition. She stressed the need for alternatives to be used whenever they exist.

Alistair Chapman, president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, said ASA wants the regents to be aware when they approve funding for building renewal projects in the future.

"We don't want tuition to be the first option," he said.

Though it's the first time in UA history tuition will pay for the debt incurred to refurbish buildings, it's not the first time tuition has paid for campus facilities.

Joel Valdez, senior vice president for business affairs, said buildings have been constructed through the sale of bonds paid by tuition since 1985, when the Legislature stopped providing the university with construction money.

Since then, Valdez said it's not uncommon for tuition to be used to pay the long-term debt used to pay off building construction.

Valdez said tuition is usually used for "operational" expenses, ranging from employee salaries to utilities and janitorial needs.

"It's the bread and butter of the university," he said.

Tuition makes up one of the few forms of unrestricted funds the university has access to, Likins said.

Arizona State University set the statewide precedent last January by using tuition for building renewal.

NAU has yet to use tuition to fund building maintenance, but Chapman said NAU was evidence of what could happen when buildings are neglected too long.

Chapman said NAU buildings have been closed because of poor conditions.

Davis said maintenance will probably start after a few months of assessing what needs the most immediate attention. He said there's a big backlog of areas that need attention.

"It's our responsibility to maintain this unbelievable campus," Davis said. " If the state doesn't send us building renewal, we have to do something about it. We're just taking care of the basics."

"Someone has to pay to maintain it," Likins said.

Chapman said he doesn't think tuition will rise significantly because the UA has to keep tuition within the bottom third of its peer institutions.

Regents last week also approved expansion of the Cherry Avenue Parking Structure, an endeavor that will bring 200 more parking spots to the center of campus. New elevators will be installed to increase the number available for disabled drivers.

The $5 million expansion will be funded through Parking and Transportation's auxiliary funds.

The first phase of an engineering research building project was also given the green light by ABOR last week. The $40 million debt incurred will be funded by indirect cost recovery or research contracts.