Arizona universities are positioning themselves well to respond to a lack of state support for higher education, while schools facing similar problems in other states are still struggling, UA, ASU and NAU presidents said Friday.

Speaking to several hundred members of the UA President's Club, President Peter Likins, Arizona State University President Michael Crow and Northern Arizona University President John Haeger said plans to differentiate the universities' missions put them ahead of institutions in other states, many of which haven't developed plans for dealing with funding shortages.

The presidents also characterized Arizona lawmakers as "pragmatic" and said they understand how universities create a financial boon. But they stopped short of outright praise.

"Enlightenment would not be the trend we are observing," Haeger said. "Hopefully some enlightened folks will come out of the pragmatists."

The presidents did praise the Legislature for its investment of about $440 million over nearly 25 years for construction of research buildings for the three campuses, including $170 million for three buildings at the UA.

But many lawmakers haven't realized that even unprofitable university activities require state investments, they said.

In the past 15 years, the total portion of university budgets from the state has dropped from nearly half to about 30 percent, and the state cut more than $40 million from the UA's budget in recent years to offset its own shortfalls.

But because Arizona's universities have decided to differentiate their missions from one another to alleviate the problem, they already have an advantage over other states.

"There's been a vain hope perhaps that the state will come back," Likins said. "(Now we know) that ain't going to happen."

At the UA, the focus must be on retaining faculty, whose research brings in as much as $400 million per year in addition to benefiting the students, Likins said.

"It's a student-centered research university, and that's the dimension. ... That can't be sacrificed," he said.

Meanwhile, ASU is working to build a metropolitan university that can grow to accommodate the state's rising population, and NAU is trying to become an undergraduate-focused university.

"How we do all of that is ... indeed extremely challenging," Crow said.

The three universities adopted those missions, which the presidents described as "complementary," about 18 months ago, after realizing they couldn't continue duplicating functions while remaining financially viable.