The tuition increase recommended by President Peter Likins is unfair to in-state students when compared to the proposal for out-of-state students.

The proposed resident tuition hike is 8.2 percent more than nonresident tuition. In 2002-2003, the last year before the significant increases began, nonresidents paid 440 percent more than residents. Since then, the difference between the two has shrunk. This year, nonresidents pay 350 percent more, and if the regents approve Likins' proposal, nonresidents will pay just 325 percent more than residents.

The difference in tuition costs is shrinking, and if hikes continue at their current rate, as Likins has suggested they will, the margin will continue to shrink.

State universities were created to offer Arizona residents higher education that is "as nearly free as possible," according to the oft-quoted phrase from the state's constitution.

But that means "nearly free" for in-state students. The constitution fails to mention anything about the cost of tuition for those who choose to venture into Arizona from elsewhere for their higher education.

Nonresident students should be required to pay a significant premium for using Arizona's education system instead of the public institutions in the states from which they came. The state did not create the UA with the purpose of educating the country's students. It created the UA to educate Arizona's students.

The difference between $3,508 for 2003-2004 in-state tuition and the $3,998 proposed for next year could be significant for low-income families who are dependent on low tuition to send their children to college. For out-of-state students already paying $12,278 this year, the $700 increase proposed for next year is easier to swallow than that for those who pay the in-state rate. After all, if $12,278 is affordable for a family, $12,978 should be too.

The UA should encourage in-state students to stay in Arizona for their college education by keeping tuition levels low. Of course, the university should try to attract the best and brightest from outside the state's borders, but they should be expected to pay the 440 percent more than residents that they were paying back in 2002.

Of course, in order to attract the best from outside Arizona, the UA needs more money. It should only be fair, then, that nonresidents pay for their own recruitment.

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Shane Dale, Caitlin Hall, Saul Loeb, Jason Poreda, Justin St. Germain and Eliza Tebo.