Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Regents to decide tuition increases today

Student leaders will sit in on board meeting in Flagstaff

Tuition for students attending Arizona public universities will go up next year.

But exactly how much it will be raised will be determined by the Arizona Board of Regents at today's meeting at Northern Arizona University.

Regent Hank Amos, ABOR president, said he doesn't think today's discussion will have an effect on regents' and students' opinions.

"I don't think it's going to change much," Amos said. "Students are going to say they need to keep it down, others will say that tuition needs to increase more."

While he doesn't think the discussion will cause the decision to go one way or another, he said he doesn't know what will happen.

"I have no idea where all the regents are going to come down," Amos said.

Ten days before the ABOR meeting, the state universities' presidents were required to present the board with their suggestions for the increases.

UA President Peter Likins proposed that tuition be raised $101 for in-state students and $388 for out-of-state students.

"They (the regents) have to determine how to balance," Likins said. "Some believe it (the proposed tuition increase) too small."

Regent Christine Thompson, a UA law student, said Likins has been very open with the students about this issue.

"Likins sat down and talked with the students," Thompson said. "The (university) presidents were very forthcoming."

Student leaders in Arizona Students Association and ASUA plan to attend the meeting to lobby the regents in favor of their proposed increase, said Cisco Aguilar, ASUA president.

Their plan includes an increase that follows Consumer Price Index-plus-one percent, which would raise tuition $75.

Last Thursday, UA students participated in a two-hour public hearing with members of ABOR about the proposed tuition hikes.

About 25 students spoke at the hearing, explaining to the regents why tuition should be kept as low as possible.

"The students did a fantastic job," Aguilar said.

A letter - dated April 3 - to Amos from state Rep. Jean McGrath, R-Glendale, asked him to keep tuition free, or as free as possible, as stated in the state constitution.

"I urge a careful review of the Board's constitutional responsibilities and a thorough review of the facts to ensure that education at our state universities is truly 'as nearly free as possible,'" the letter stated.

Amos said he had not received a letter from McGrath.

While the students and university presidents are arguing for different increases, Thompson said she thinks no one side will win.

"We're going to have to come to a compromise," Thompson said. "Everybody is going to end up winners."

Each university's student body president will be allowed to sit at the table with the regents and will be given a chance to argue about the tuition issue.

Besides speaking to the entire board today, ASA has been discussing the issue with the two new regents, Christina Palacios and Gary Stuart.

"That's where we had to focus," Aguilar said. "We're waiting to see how they vote."

If Likins' plan is approved by the Board of Regents, he has pledged that about half of the funds will go to halt the massive teacher exodus.

Of the $101 that each in-state student would pay extra a semester, $9 would automatically go to fund financial aid.

The remaining $92 would be split between raising teachers' salaries and improving the university's technology.

"It has to be decided where needs are most critical," Likins says.

The state allows faculty to receive a two percent raise per year and no more than a four percent increase with state money.

Likins said some faculty members are receiving job offers at other institutions that could double their current salaries and that the state's limitations on faculty salary increases are "sharply constraining."

While many decisions have already been made concerning where the raise in tuition could be spent by the universities, Thompson said nothing is final until the regents discuss the proposals.

"Some regents are going to wait to see what happens at the discussion (before deciding how to vote)," Thompson said.