Incoming ASU freshmen better start saving up. These students will be facing more expensive room and board rates next semester, following rate increases for University student housing and meal plans approved by the Arizona Board of Regents March 17.
In a 6-2 decision, ABOR, the governing body for Arizona's public university system, raised student housing prices by an average of 5 percent at the Tempe campus and an average of 6 percent at Polytechnic and West campuses.
Despite student opposition, the minimum rates for mandatory meal plans for freshmen were raised by 5 percent at Tempe and Polytechnic campuses to totals of $1,995 and $1,360 per year, respectively. The rates were instituted for the first time at West and Downtown campuses, at totals of $1,360 and $1,650, respectively.
Generally, the housing increases faced no opposition, but the meal plan increases were the subject of heated talks at the ABOR meeting.
Regent Ernest Calderón said he opposed blanket mandatory meal plans because some students would not get what they pay for.
"I don't think the amenities at ASU West are comparable," he said, contrasting the facilities to those at the Tempe and Downtown campuses.
But James Rund, ASU vice president of undergraduate initiatives, said University administation took that into account by making the meal plan for West campus students less expensive.
Calderón said the said student representatives swayed his vote against the increase.
"ASU has had the most energetic discussion among students," he said.
During the call to the audience, in which members of the audience can address the regents, student government representatives presented their case, but in the end, the vote did not go their way.
"Students could have won this one if they politicked it right," Calderón said.
But Arizona Student Association Board Chair Lindsay Bayuk said her organization was not given enough prior notice to draft a strong enough argument against the measure.
"This issue has flown under the radar," she said. "This is something that we just received word of recently."
She said University administration should have contacted the student government earlier to ask for their input.
But ASU President Michael Crow said administration had been in talks with the ASU Residence Hall Association, the representative body of students living in residence halls on campus.
RHA Director Jane Christie said in a letter to the regents included in ABOR documents that her group has been pleased its work with campus dining provider Aramark, Residential Life and Student Affairs.
Still, Bayuk said she has encountered staunch opposition to the increase and to mandatory meal plans, altogether.
"This infuriates so many freshmen," she said.
But Crow said there should be no controversy because the rate increases were lower than those at UA or NAU. He added that meal plans help to increase freshmen retention.
"Mandatory meal plans are not a financial matter for us. They are an academic matter," he said. "The way to help freshmen students succeed at this institution is to have them live together and learn together."
Mandating that freshmen eat on campus, he said, would help create a sense of community among first-year students that would discourage them from dropping out.
At the ABOR meeting, NAU President John Haeger said mandatory meal plans have improved freshmen retention at his school, but UA President Robert Shelton said the lack of mandatory meal plans has had no negative effect on UA's retention rates.
Rund added that the meal plans are mandatory only for freshmen and voluntary after.
Reach the reporter at: daniel.newhauser@asu.edu.
