The cost of attending Arizona State University is likely to jump 25 percent over the next three years.
Less than a year after the largest tuition increase in more than seven decades, university officials are considering raising tuition again. At the same time, students may face a plethora of new fees for everything from the student union and recreation center to the student health center and college programs.
The cost of getting an education at ASU has been on a steady rise, and there are no signs that the trend is slowing.
The biggest hit came in March when the Board of Regents approved a tuition increase of $1,000 per year for full-time students - a 44 percent hike. The additional money - about $47.5 million this year - went to pay for health benefits for employees and increased financial aid for needy students, among other things.
But more money is needed to keep up with an ever-growing student population and improve programs and services, President Michael Crow and other university officials say.
Tuition is likely to go up another $480 a year - a fraction of the last increase, but still substantial, said Board of Regents Student Regent Danelle Kelling.
Students have also seen an increase in the fees they are required to pay. Since the 1999-2000 school year, mandatory student fees have increased from $71 to $85 a semester. With 45,700 students at ASU's main campus, that's an extra $640,000 for the university each semester.
The Financial Aid Trust Fund receives $18 per semester from the mandatory fees. According to ABOR's policy manual, the fund was created by ABOR to "provide immediate aid to students with verifiable financial need ... to students who, by virtue of their special circumstances, present unique need for financial aid, and to create an endowment for future financial aid."
The Student Recreation Center on ASU's main campus gets $25 of the $85 fee each semester. Every student who enrolls at ASU - even those attending ASU East and ASU West miles away - is charged that fee, whether they use the center or not.
A $1-a-semester fee goes to the Arizona Students Association for lobbying efforts to promote excellence in education. Students can ask for a refund of that fee, however.
The total that students pay in student fees is almost certain to go beyond the current $85 level in the next few years. A campaign is under way to convince students to support additional charges for the Memorial Union and the Student Recreation Center. Under the proposal, students would pay an additional $25 beginning next fall. The fee would then rise to $75 in 2005, to $100 in 2006 and finally to $155 a semester.
That's not all. Separate discussions have begun to consider charging a $40 per semester fee - the first-ever such charge - for Student Health Center services.
If another tuition hike, the higher fee for the student union and the rec center, and the new health center fees are all approved, in three years ASU students will be paying nearly $500, or 25 percent more, per semester than they do now to go to school.
The Big Picture
By any accounting, ASU is still a relatively inexpensive place to attend school. Even after the last tuition increase, the university was ranked 37th among public university in terns of cost. Board of Regents' policy requires that tuition and fees never "exceed the amount required to maintain a position at the top of the lower one-third of rates set forth by other states for undergraduate resident tuition and mandatory fees at the senior public universities." The policy also states that it is the board's intention to reach the "top of the lowest one-third and maintain that position for the foreseeable future." A $480 increase would move ASU into the 34th slot nationally, the top of the lower one-third.
Since 1999, tuition increases have almost doubled every school year at ASU, from an $84 increase in 1999 to $140 in 2001 and a $236 increase in 2002. From spring 2003 to fall 2003, tuition increased $1,000. The largest percent increase in ASU history was in 1931 when tuition rose 100 percent - $10 to $20.
The College Board's Annual Survey of Colleges, released Oct. 21, shows that ASU's increasing cost is not unique. Tuition and fees are on the rise nationally. During the 2003-2004 academic year, tuition increased an average of $579 at four-year public institutions, going from $4,115 to $4,694, a 14 percent increase. Private colleges saw a 6 percent increase nationally. The average increase at private colleges was $1,000 - the exact amount of ASU's last tuition increase.
The report released by the College Board stated, "This year, strained state budgets across the country led to severe cutbacks in institutional funding, causing increased reliance on the other major source of revenue - tuition and fees."
College Board President Gaston Caperton said in a press release that there are definite "mounting and troubling hardships of financing an education" affecting educational institutions across the nation.
"Education leaders must be able to make persuasive cases to governors and legislators on the importance of reasonable and predictable levels of state support," Caperton said. "Levels of state funding have dipped to a dangerously low point in recent years. Campus leaders and their institutions of higher learning must, at all times, be deserving of public trust and public dollars."
National increase
In Arizona, the state Legislature hasn't come close to keeping up with the needs of the state's universities, according to the presidents of the three state universities.
"The state's investment in higher education will not keep pace with the services and quality enhancements that are growing student enrollments demand," said Crow in the "Changing Directions" plan for the three state universities.
The result: Crow and University of Arizona President Peter Likens have said they will recommend another tuition increase this year, although they haven't said how much. Northern Arizona State President John Haegar has not yet said whether he will agree to pursue an increase.
Student Regent Kelling said the Board of Regents hasn't discussed a tuition hike yet, but she thinks another increase, this time of about $480 a year, is likely.
Associated Students of ASU, ASU's student government organization, will "gauge student reaction to the tuition increase" during a survey this spring before deciding whether to support the increase, said President Brandon Goad. ASASU supported the last tuition increase.
Goad said that while he believes tuition increases are inevitable at ASU, "when the increase exceeds inflation - what happened last year - that's when we get concerned."
In addition to letting the Regents know what students think, "we do have a direct say, though it's only one vote" - Kelling's, Goad said. "She was elected by the students to represent the student voice."
Kelling said she has not made a decision on whether to support another increase because she hasn't yet heard students' opinions on the issue.
Erin Mote, who is working on her master's degree in public affairs, said she wasn't shocked by this semester's tuition increase, and even if it goes up again, she says the cost of an ASU education is worth it.
"Arizona State has an incredibly affordable tuition fee, given where I did my undergraduate" work, said Mote, who was a Michigan State University student.
Student-justified fees
Students also concede there is some need for increased fees to support services like recreation, health and the student union.
A student committee formed to consider the fee increase for the union and recreation center conducted two surveys before recommending raising the fee to $155 per semester.
The surveys, taken in April and October, found that 72 percent of undergraduate students and 70 percent of graduate students support some sort of expansion to the Memorial Union and the SRC.
"This is the students saying they want to pay the fees," Goad said.
But the surveys also showed that 23 percent of students never use the SRC. Only 2 percent of students never use the MU. The increased fee would be mandatory for all students, regardless of whether they use the facilities or not, said committee co-chair and philosophy and history senior John Sullivan.
ASASU has proposed putting the issue to a vote of students. The Board of Regents is expected to consider the referendum at the end of January, and students could vote in February.
The MU and SRC expansion/renovation project would cost between $140 million to $150 million, and would include more food options and meeting space in the MU and more gym equipment and an indoor track in the SRC, among other additions.
A Student Health Center fee could come as early as next year, according to SHC Director Dr. Mary Rimsza. The student body is quickly outgrowing ASU facilities, and before the university grows any more, something has to be done, she said.
The health center was built more than 50 years ago to serve the 6,000 students then enrolled at ASU. Students did not pay to build the center, and there has never been a mandatory student fee to support it. Student enrollment has increased more than sevenfold since the center was built, yet the SHC building has never been updated or expanded.
Rimsza said the health center is extremely out of date and "there's a strong need for new facilities and more services. Most universities charge fees that range from $70 to $80 to run their health centers," she said.
Again, a fee might be implemented in stages, beginning with $40 per semester and doubling to $80 per semester by 2006 to fund the construction of a new building, Rimsza said.
"There is a push for the Student Health Center to become financially independent," which the fee would help make possible, she added. A fee could also make it possible to lower costs for visits, pharmacy, X-rays and lab work, she said.
The SHC currently has about 55,000 visits per year, 26,000 of which are repeat patients. If all of those appointments were for students, that's just over half of the student body that utilizes the center.
"Given the benefits, I think most students will see it as a positive fee," Rimsza said.
Students have not yet been asked for their opinions on this fee, but Rimsza said that at some point, they will be.
Specialty Fees
It isn't just university-wide charges that are going up. Individual colleges and programs also are turning to fees to help them cope with rising enrollment and growing demands.
This semester, two colleges on campus began charging students for simply enrolling in the college - charges that come on top of tuition and university-wide student fees. Law students paid $2,875 this semester - $1,250 more than last year. Incoming undergraduates to the W.P. Carey School of Business professional program paid a $250 fee for the first time this semester.
Business school Associate Dean Kay Faris said the school will use the money for scholarships, faculty and career placement, but because the fee is new, the school won't see the benefits of the fee increase until next semester at the soonest.
"We really need to be able to provide students with the services and experience we think they need and deserve," Faris said. "What we get from tuition is not sufficient for a nationally ranked program."
Aside from program fees, many schools are charging class fees for use of a lab or special equipment.
Since spring 2001, the School of Nursing has charged its professional program students fees for lab expenses. Stacy Buchanan, administrative assistant to nursing school Associate Dean Mary Killeen, said the money collected each semester is used to pay for disposable equipment, such as needles. The fees range from $15 to $98, depending on the class. Next semester the fees will increase by about $30 to cover higher cost of supplies, Buchanan said.
"We do what we can to keep [fees] low, but it's hard with increasing cost," she said.
Other colleges, including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, are also considering program fees for fall 2004.
"Like everybody else, we're looking at whatever ways we can to defer the considerable cost we have in offering the instruction and equipment to teach the students here," said journalism school Interim Director Steve Doig. "No decisions have been made, but it's clear that we're not going to be getting any help from the state Legislature."
The school is currently asking for donations to help offset costs, but Doig said there may be no way to avoid program fees. He added that any fees collected will go towards the students, whether it's to make programs better, offer more scholarships or increase computer lab availability.
"It won't be a choice we make gladly... It's the reality of facing a rapidly growing program in the face of flat revenues from the people that are supposedly helping us," Doig said.
The Board of Regents must approve any student fee over $50, but when asked for a list of proposed and approved fees for ASU students, no such list was available.
"For me, [program fees] wouldn't be that much of a financial burden, but for other students I know it would be cost-prohibitive," said master's student Mote. "With any type of fee structure-tuition, local gym, any club or membership fee-there comes a point when students or professionals can no longer afford to keep paying."
Reach the reporter at jamie.schneider@asu.edu.
