Students were hit hard after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey cut nearly $100 million from the state’s University funding budget and the Arizona Board of Regents, working with the three state universities, tacked on fees and tuition hikes to ASU students.
ABOR hosted an interactive hearing to students at all three state universities, giving them the chance to comment on the tuition hikes Monday.
ASU’s 2015-16 tuition proposal had no increases for in-state student, but increased tuition by 4 percent for out-of-state students and from 10 to 12 percent for international students.
The proposal also implemented a one-year $320 fee for all students as well as a fee for students in Barrett, the Honors College and other programs.
Students and citizens voiced their opinions and concerns about tuition increases, and shared their stories to add an extra layer of perspective ABOR to consider before solidifying their tuition proposals.
“As Regents, we take all that testimony and we sit down and talk about it and try to figure out what’s best for students and their families and what’s best for the institution,” Regent Mark Killian said.
Predominant among these concerns was the tuition proposal for ASU DREAMers, undocumented citizens who were brought to the U.S. as children illegally by their parents, but often get the same education and pay the same taxes as citizens. Nearly half of the speakers touched on this issue during their testimonies.
They pay out-of-state tuition despite the fact that most have lived in Arizona for most of their lives. ABOR’s new proposition would essentially allow them to pay 50 percent more than in-state students.
Among the speakers addressing this topic was Dulce Matuz, an Arizona activist who was featured in Time Magazine’s 2012 “100 Most Influential People” Issue. She was brought into the U.S. illegally when she was 15 and graduated college with a degree in electrical engineering.
She urged the board to give these individuals in-state tuition, explaining the strain many of these immigrants have in paying for tuition and believing it an injustice to nearly 23,000 students who fall under this description.
“Students' human dignity is not cut by half. It should be 100 percent,” Matuz said.
Moving this tuition down is currently being blocked a voter-approved law requiring these students pay out-of-state tuition and denying them state and federal financial aid.
“The 150 percent, it’s not perfect, but I think it drives that cost down and sometime in the future when the voters of Arizona want to change their mind on that proposition, then we can lower it even lower. … It’s going to take a few more years,” Killian said.
Although that was a major discussion, students voiced their support and understanding for the fees and tuition increases.
However, there was also a measure of frustration throughout the meeting.
Both students at Barrett, the Honors College and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Communications emphasized their frustrations at the confusion and lack of communication regarding proposed fees of $250 a semester through the schools.
Ryan Boyd, vice president of policy at Undergraduate Student Government Downtown, said the Regents were fairly vague about their fee applying to both colleges, not making it clear that the Cronkite school fee only applied to students entering the school in 2015.
“Frankly, it makes it hard for us to decide to oppose or support when you don't know what the fee is,” Boyd said, adding that there was a great deal of confusion and fear in the downtown campus.
The Board is expected to release its final tuition proposal on May 4 at 2 p.m.
Reach the reporter at megan.janetsky@asu.edu or follow @meganjanetsky on Twitter.
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