The Graduate and Professional Student Association has announced it will work with ASU President Michael Crow to raise tuition by 8.5 percent next semester, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.
The graduate students are looking to receive funds for research grants, financial aid, research and teaching assistants and students who are working on their theses and dissertations.
Crow has not yet confirmed the percentage increase he will ask the Arizona Board of Regents to approve when tuition talks begin in April. He said an 8.5-percent increase has been "on the table for some time."
He previously said he would not ask for more than a 10 percent increase.
"I have had the 8.5 percent in mind since last year as a way to slow up the tuition increase rate from the 14 percent required to stay on the regents' policy track," Crow said.
This increase would raise in-state tuition for graduate students by $435 and by $345 for undergraduates.
"The priorities that the GPSA listed and presented to President Crow were in line with his 8.5-percent increase," said GPSA President Deirdre Hahn.
The GPSA stated "members of GPSA recognize that by supporting President Crow's project tuition increase, a proportion of the increased revenue will be allocated toward meeting [their] priorities."
This is the first tuition statement to be released by a student organization this spring. The Undergraduate Student Government sent out a survey last week to students to determine where tuition dollars could best be spent, but a proposal has not yet been released.
According to information gathered by Institutional Advancement, more than 11,000 graduate students and more than 46,000 undergraduates were enrolled at ASU during fall 2004.
GPSA Assembly President Kirsti Cole said the increase is needed to fulfill the needs of the graduate students.
"We recognize that at 8.5 percent, graduate students will gain benefits, whereas at 5 percent, they may not be as tangible," Cole said. "There needs to be a recognition that the needs of graduate students are very different from the needs of undergraduates."
In past years, response to tuition increases has been reactionary, but this year Hahn said she is anticipating the increase and is trying to get the most out of it.
"We are asking for predictability. We are asking in some ways for an academic plan that students can buy into," she said.
Reach the reporter at rkost@asu.edu.
ONLINE EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was modified Feb. 4. to correctly note Kirsti Cole's position as GPSA assembly president.
