Regents hold public hearing for tuition proposal
By Kyle Daly March 1, 2010 at 10:34 pm 
Print This Post
SPEAKING UP: The Arizona Board of Regents held a public tuition hearing in the Turquiose Room of the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus Monday. Students at all three state universities were included in the hearing via teleconference. (Photo by Scott Stuk)
Student leaders from ASU, NAU and UA are pointing fingers, and their line of sight is fixed on the state Capitol.
Students and administration officials from the three universities came together Monday evening in an open hearing teleconference held by the Arizona Board of Regents to discuss the universities’ proposed tuition increases.
Student government leaders from each university expressed their frustrations not only over the tuition increases, but also toward the state’s cuts to higher education.
“This time we’re focusing our anger on those who are truly responsible,” said Undergraduate Student Government President Brendan O’Kelly. “And that is the Arizona state Legislature.”
ASU has seen programs cut, faculty members laid off and an increase in class size, O’Kelly said. State budget cuts have forced the University to implement a tuition surcharge, which could double next school year from $510 per year for in-state students to $1,025, he said.
Next year’s proposed surcharge was originally set to increase only to $750, but the amount changed after the University learned that stimulus funds available to the state’s three universities would be $30 million less than originally planned. The extra money is meant to help close the gap.
“The state cannot continue to pawn its constitutionally mandated responsibility to fund our public universities off on students who are scraping the bottom of their bank accounts just to get by,” O’Kelly said.
Andrew Clark, president of the ASU West campus student government, said he does not want to see student leaders having to face the same financial situation next year.
“Our services have dwindled, our ability to have access to classrooms has gone away, and yet our tuition continues to rise,” Clark said of the West campus. “This is not acceptable.”
However, Clark said, student leaders will accept the fact that tuition and fees must go up.
“But that doesn’t mean we have to like it,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s right.”
ASU’s in-state tuition will increase by 5 percent for continuing undergraduates under the current proposal, while out-of-state tuition will go up by 3.5 percent. Tuition for incoming undergraduate residents will increase by 12.9 percent.
The tuition increase proposal stays in line with a 2007 proposal that called for a 5 percent per year increase of resident undergraduate tuition.
ASU President Michael Crow said the University has already eliminated six colleges, merged 22 academic departments and laid off 1,281 employees because of its decrease in funding.
But Crow stressed that the University will remain committed to excellence and access.
“Our commitment to access is the following: No student will be left out of attending the University for financial reasons — period,” Crow said.
Journalism sophomore Sabrina Willard, who said she has been forced to obtain $15,000 in student loans, went before regents and said she was an average student stuck between qualifying for financial aid and merit scholarships.
“I don’t want to take out any more loans, and if this increase happens, I might be forced to,” Willard said.
Students at NAU and UA are also feeling the financial impact of tuition increases.
This year’s tuition increase is the highest dollar inflation in the history of UA’s existence, said UA student body president Chris Nagata.
According to a UA press release, the university’s proposal calls for an increase of $1,450 for Arizona resident undergraduates, to $7,224, and to $8,014 for graduate students.
“These increases are supposed to be more palatable due to financial aid, but tell that to the student who works two jobs, who’s increasing their debt and who may be finding another option to further their education,” Nagata said.
Incoming resident freshmen to NAU will be looking at a 15.7 percent increase in tuition and fees, to $7,667. Current in-state student tuition and fees will go up by $167 for sophomores ($6,794), juniors ($5,848) and seniors ($7,053).
Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu
More from The State Press:
- University considers lower tuition for West, Poly
- Crow talks tuition in open forum
- Tuition, fee increases approved
The State Press recommends:
- Time for UA coach Olson to come clean (AZ Central Sports)
- What expansion could mean for ASU (AZ Central Sports)
- Win solidifies successful season for ASU (AZ Central Sports)
Categories: Administration Downtown Featured News Polytechnic Spotlight Tempe West
The Graduate and Professional Student Association's Statement regarding the Tuition Proposal provided by the ASU Administration:
GPSA is the graduate student government at Arizona State University and represents nearly 14,000 graduate and professional students.
Last week, the GPSA Assembly voted to support the tuition policy that was presented to the students by the ASU administration. The vote was divisive and I believe that this demonstrates the complexity of tuition and fees at Arizona State University, especially for graduate students.
Students have been put in an impossible position with fees and tuition. The students at Arizona State University have begrudgingly accepted tuition and fee increases in an effort to ensure a quality product. At the same time, the state of Arizona has regularly sent a message to the student population – that they do not care about quality in an effort to be more “cost effective.”
That being said, the most important issue for graduate students is to ensure that a graduate degree at ASU remains a high quality degree. However, given the increasing costs associated with earning a graduate education, many individuals have made a decision to not pursue one. For instance, total graduate enrollment at ASU increased about 5% from Fall 2006 to Fall 2007 and again about 5% from Fall 2007 to Fall 2008. However, that increase was less than ½ of 1% from Fall 2008 to Fall 2009 with the university’s graduate enrollment only increasing by 3 total students from Fall 08 to Fall 09. While I am not entirely certain if cost is correlated with graduate enrollment, I would suspect it is.
To maintain a high quality degree, GPSA advocates for the following things:
o Ensure that there are adequate financial aid programs available to graduate students on the basis of both need and merit.
o Ensure that TA and RA benefits are improved for all Graduate Students.
o Ensure that undergraduate students are informed of the benefits of pursuing a graduate education
o We oppose increases in program fees that do not have student input in the decision making process.
o We hope that the ASU administration seeks graduate student input prior to any future program or department changes.
o And finally, we want to ensure that program fees, tuition and surcharge increases are not cost-prohibitive for students who want to pursue a graduate education.
The future of the state of Arizona is in the quality of the educational product produced by the State’s higher learning institutions. This goes for both graduate and undergraduate education. My hope is that the Graduate & Professional Student Association of ASU can work closely with the Regents and continue to work closely with the ASU administration to ensure that quality is maintained and costs associated with earning a degree are feasible for students.
Justin,
Thank you for your post. With limited space in the paper and tight deadlines, some voices are often left out. The voice of GPSA is an important one at ASU and should not be overlooked. Thank you for your statement.
Attendance at the Tuition Hearing was a great success and now is the time when we need more student power than ever. Next Thursday, the Arizona Board of Regents will set tuition for next year. Please plan on attending this meeting and support higher education on March 11th at the U of A in Tucson. There will also be a RALLY before the meeting to show addition support at 10am on the U of A Tucson Campus. For more information on activities happening in Tucson, check out Facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=338089528… and visit our website at Azstudents.org.
To share your story about how you are going to pay for higher tuition, please send an email to AZTuitionHearing2010@gmail.com