The Arizona Board of Regents held its November meeting on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday where the key topic was tuition for undocumented students.
Regent Dennis DeConcini's proposal of creating a 110 percent of the in-state tuition rate for DREAMers failed to pass voting.
Undocumented students who cannot prove lawful residence in the U.S. are required to pay out-of-state tuition and are not eligible for federal financial aid.
Proposition 300, which passed in Arizona in 2006, made undocumented students ineligible for state and federal subsidized financial aid and in-state tuition costs. Regents also discussed a plan to ask the state legislature for $1 billion in research money for the three state universities.
The money would be used to provide better research opportunities for students as well as boost the economy by attracting companies to Arizona, such as Apple, which Gov. Jan Brewer recently announced will be opening a manufacturing facility in Mesa. If the state approves the money for the schools UA will receive the lion's share at $450 million, ASU will receive $400 million and NAU will receive $150 million over the next 10 years.
Regents also discussed how to keep tuition from skyrocketing at the state universities as Arizona was recently reported as having the highest tuition increases over the past five years.
ABOR President Eileen Klein said keeping tuition rates affordable is important to the regents and the universities.
"We started out lower than almost every other university and are now on a more level playing field," she said.
President Michael Crow recently said tuition for ASU would not rise during the 2014-15 school year for current and incoming in-state students.
"We are looking at the tuition arranging process where we can make some changes to the tuition in a longer range view in order to bring more certainty to students, parents and policy makers," Klein said.
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or on Twitter @Joey_Hancock
