The Arizona Board of Regents approved President Michael Crow’s proposal Thursday to increase ASU tuition for continuing students by 5 percent in fall 2009.

Crow said his proposal stayed consistent with promises made last year to keep tuition predictable for students by capping increases at 5 percent each year. He said this is a financially stressful time to stay committed to predictability, but ASU will continue to do so.

The regents also added a measure that requires the University to dedicate 17 percent of tuition revenue to financial aid, up from the current requirement of about 15 percent. The measure establishes 17 percent as the minimum for financial aid funding, but Crow said ASU is already well above that mark.

He said ASU would continue to offer financial aid to any students unable to pay tuition as a result of the approved increase.

“If you have financial aid needs that are different from when you entered the institution … we will find a way to be helpful to you,” Crow said.

The increase is part of Crow’s plan to raise accessibility to ASU by maintaining a moderate tuition while offering high financial aid.

“It’s a simple philosophy matching excellence with access,” Crow told the regents.

He said the tuition model in place before he took office in 2002, which relied on low tuition and offered little financial aid, was “a total, unmitigated failure.”

The new 5 percent increase follows what Crow called a proven model that has been in place for five years. He said the increase supports the University’s goals according to that plan.

“We’ve greatly accelerated access to the University,” he said. “The University is now more diverse … in this present model than it was in the previous model.”

Crow told the regents his proposal was strictly geared toward improving the quality of the University. He cited record numbers of applicants to ASU as well as record accessibility and diversification as proof of his model’s success.

Regent Dennis DeConcini, a former U.S. senator, expressed concern over approving Crow’s proposal and called for a tuition increase consistent with the rise in Arizona’s cost of living given the ailing economy.

“Seeing the response to the economic crisis we see at the national level, the state level and the local level, it just seems to me that this is not the time to raise tuition,” DeConcini said. “Is that too much to ask for our universities to say, ‘Wait, for one year we’re going to live like the rest of America is?’”

DeConcini proposed an increase of 3.7 percent for all three universities.

The board narrowly rejected DeConcini’s proposal with regard to ASU tuition in a 5-4 ruling. Opposing regents said it would challenge the predictability models already in place at ASU and NAU.

Regent LuAnn Leonard said she could not vote for DeConcini’s plan because it could mean NAU and ASU have to break their predictability promises next year to make up for tuition losses as a result of this year’s proposal.

“If we did go with the 3 percent that Senator DeConcini is proposing … we would jeopardize that predictability model,” Leonard said. “I am very hesitant to go that route.”

In an unexpected move, however, regents voted in favor of DeConcini’s plan for in-state undergraduates at UA.

UA President Robert Shelton proposed an increase of 9.5 percent this year with a cap of 5 percent annually after that. But regents rejected Shelton’s proposal for in-state undergraduate students, replacing it with DeConcini’s plan.

“What bothers me now is the unfairness to the Arizona State University,” DeConcini said.

He said the regents agreed through their voting that UA was in a financial crisis, but that ASU and NAU were not.

“It is quite unfair,” he said.

On the other hand, ABOR President Fred Boice said he felt the vote was unfair to UA.

He said the board recognized the requests of NAU’s and ASU’s presidents but ignored UA’s president.

“I am appalled,” he told the board. “How can you do that?”

Shelton’s increases for out-of-state undergraduates and all graduate students were approved as he proposed them.

The approved increase for in-state UA undergrads was slightly more than a proposal sent to ABOR by the Arizona Students’ Association, but ASA Chairman Michael Slugocki said it was based on the same standard of the cost of living in the state.

He said he was glad the regents included accountability measures at all universities, which require the presidents to give public, detailed reports of how tuition dollars are spent. Having seen the 3 percent proposal fail at ASU and NAU, Slugocki said he was shocked the board approved such a low increase for UA.

“It’s a big victory for students,” he said. “I just wish we could have worked for lower numbers at ASU and NAU.”

Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu