A panel of state lawmakers is considering a new funding system for Arizona’s public universities.

The three-member House Ad Hoc Committee on Equity in University Funding is designed to address inequalities in state funds given to ASU, NAU and UA. Committee chairman Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, has said the new university-funding formulas could be in place in the next three to five years.

But on Wednesday, working within the current funding system, the universities presented their 2010 budget requests to the committee.

Arizona currently gives each university the same amount of funding it received the year before plus, if the budget allows, additional funds based on growth in enrollment, ASU Senior Vice President and University Planner Richard Stanley said. The additional funding is given according to an enrollment-growth formula.

“The theory behind it is that for every 22 new students [in addition to the previous year], a university ought to be in a position for one new faculty member as well as any support staff for that faculty member,” Stanley said.

The state also gives a bulk amount to the Arizona Board of Regents to distribute among the universities as the regents see fit.

According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s Web site, general funds from the state budgeted for the Tempe campus in fiscal year 2009 totaled $398 million.

That’s $7,812 per Full-Time Equivalent. The number of FTEs, an approximate count of students enrolled, is calculated using the total of credits taken at a given university, Stanley said.

In comparison, both UA and NAU have lower total funding than ASU, but higher funding per FTE, at $12,097 and $8,838 respectively.

This inequity in funding is why the committee was formed, Nichols said.

“How can I tell people in [my district] that when you go to ASU, you’re not worth as much to the state as if you went to NAU or UA?” he said.

ASU’s 2010 budget request includes an additional $10 million, which could be used for more faculty and support staff, to make up for years when enrollment-growth funding was not provided.

“The nature of the [enrollment] formula is not one that allows for catch-up if [the Arizona Legislature] fails to have funded something in the past,” Stanley said.

Because of the lack of enrollment-growth funds, Stanley said, the University estimates that 15,000 students have attended ASU essentially unfunded since 1995. ASU’s original plan was to ask for $31 million, but that number was geared back to accommodate the state’s budget situation.
Nichols said the committee hopes to rework the way state funding is distributed by finding a core funding number per estimated student that could be applied to all three universities.

The state Legislature would give each university that amount per student based on the university’s total enrollment each year. The state would then give other available funds to the Arizona Board of Regents to distribute according to each university’s individual needs.

The board has been working on a formula that could be used to distribute its share of the money for more than a year, Christine Thompson, ABOR’s assistant executive director for government affairs, said during Wednesday’s meeting. She said the board’s formula would include factors like best practices of similar universities, unique programs like the UA College of Medicine and graduation rates.

Nichols said another committee meeting would be scheduled within the next couple weeks to review an ABOR study that is to be completed by Nov. 1.

Reach the reporter at cogino@asu.edu.