The Arizona Board of Regents will be holding a public meeting this Thursday in the Catalina Ballroom at the University of Arizona to make a decision regarding the tuition proposals. This will be the first possible tuition raise at the University of Arizona since the ten percent increase in 2011.
At a tuition hearing on Wednesday evening the University of Arizona’s President Ann Weaver Hart listened to what students had to say about her proposed tuition increase of three percent as well as an $80 library fee.
Most of the students from the UA campus were in support of the tuition increase but ASUA president Katy Murray told the Board and President Hart that the three percent increase was the maximum amount she could support. Murray said she would not support a mandatory $80 library fee.
GPSC President Zachary Brooks was also in support of President Hart’s tuition increase proposal.
“The UA Administrators have told us they want to repair buildings, invest in ABOR 2020 Goals, and invest in faculty with some of the tuition increase. Some of the increase just keeps up with inflation which is about two percent annually,” said Brooks.
If the Board of Regents passes President Hart’s tuition increase, undergraduate Arizona residents will go from paying an annual tuition fee of $10,035 to $10,391 and undergraduate non-residents will go from paying $26,231 to $27,073.
Board members felt that this was a modest proposal but students at UA south were in disagreement. Associated Students of The University of Arizona South President Alexis Easlick told the board that the students of the UA south campus could not afford an increase in tuition.
“Our students here at UA South range from students who have full-time jobs to parents to active duty military students as well as students transferring from community college,” said Easlick.
Proposed tuition increase at Arizona State University is also three percent with a proposed five percent increase at Northern Arizona University.
President of ASU’s undergraduate student government said that this was the “lowest tuition increase in the past ten years for all students.”
Students at NUA were also in support of the proposed tuition increase and urged the other state universities to consider adopting the pledge programs which allows students to receive a locked in tuition rate for four years of attendance regardless of increases.
At the meeting on Thursday The Board will also vote on University of Arizona President Hart’s proposed library fee of $80.
In a memo to Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Andrew Comrie, the Dean of Libraries Carla Stoffle said that the UA libraries have received no new funds since the 2010-11 school year.
If the Board passes this proposed library fee, Stoffle says the funds will be used for: “the purchase of new journals, databases and ebooks; cover inflationary cost increases in information resources; expand resources, including increasing hours of operations on Friday and Saturday; and cover the implementation and ongoing costs of access to campus information digitized and managed by the Libraries in the campus repository” as stated in her memo to Comrie.
ASUA President Katy Murray told the Board and President Hart that she could not support the $80 library fee because “it would be a mandatory fee that students wouldn’t be able to opt of and so many things are already going up” at the hearing on Wednesday.
“The bigger picture is the “total cost of attendance” and the UA Administrators have to make hard decisions on how to run a university. A bigger question is if the state of Arizona wants to invest more in higher education or not. Since 2007 the university budget has been cut in half,” said GPSC President Zachary Brooks who is in support of the proposed $80 library fee.
Arizona Board of Regents will vote on these proposals in a public meeting on Thursday at 9:30 am in the University of Arizona’s Catalina Ballroom.