Tuition Update - President Michael Crow from ASU Office of the President on Vimeo

ASU President Michael Crow said Friday that his recently proposed 5 percent tuition increase would not be used to offset budget cuts.

“Budget cuts have to do with loss in state investment, not tuition increases,” Crow said in a video released Friday to address student concerns about tuition.

It was the second video about financial matters Crow posted online this semester.

The financial stress ASU is undergoing is due to the recent economic crisis, he said, with the state cutting about $60 million in funding to the University. This is the largest cut in ASU’s history, he said in an earlier interview. The tuition-increase proposal would bring $45 million of additional revenue to the school, not covering the shortfall.

“That is a difficult situation for us, indeed,” Crow said in the video.

Although the revenue from the proposed tuition increase is smaller than the loss of investment from the state, many other colleges and universities are setting tuition hikes to match the loss of investment from their states, Crow said.

“We’re not moving in this direction so that we can stay true to our promise of predictability,” he said.

ASU looks to continue a plan included in last year's tuition proposal, which was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, that caps tuition increases for returning in-state undergraduates at 5 percent per year for up to five years after enrollment.

In a Thursday interview with The State Press editorial board, Crow said the University is treating the current economic turmoil and the resulting state budget cuts as a temporary situation, comparing it to a hurricane.

“You basically batten down the hatches, do the best that you can and kind of weather your way to the other side and then repair when the hurricane’s over,” Crow said.

Crow also told the editorial board that tuition has more than doubled since he came to ASU, but the increases have enabled more people to attend because more financial aid is available.

“When tuition was low, it was destructive to the institution,” he said. “Who can’t come to your university — that’s how you measure access. We have increased access while more than doubling tuition while growing the University at the same time.”

Crow said that when he started in 2002, ASU had the worst access level of a major university in the country, with 30 percent fewer students eligible for Pell Grants than today. The number of students from families below the poverty line has increased 500 percent since 2002, he said.

In the video, Crow addressed concerns that the University is spending tuition on nonessential things like athletics, residence halls and dining halls. These are self-financed, he said; tuition goes toward education and paying for teachers.

“It isn’t the case that we have issues that we’re spending more on this or that. Those things run themselves,” Crow said. “Our real problem is that we have insufficient resources for our instructional enterprises to begin with and then the state is stepping up and reducing some of those resources on top of that.”

The money ASU gets from tuition and the state per student is less than the cost of instruction, he said.

Addressing the perception that tuition hikes are used to generate a profit for ASU, Crow said the University has 17 revenue sources, including tuition and state appropriations, all of which are devoted to teaching, learning and discovery function of the institution.

“We are a not-for-profit enterprise,” he said.

While tuition increases might not seem to result in immediate tangible improvements, Crow cited a number of advancements since he began in 2002: renovated classrooms, more students on financial aid, more than 100 new degree programs and expanded facilities, advisers, and public safety.

“We believe we have helped this institution become successful,” he said. “We are very interested in your success. We are focused on your success. We want this moment to be an exciting time in your life.”

Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.