ASU President Michael Crow recommended a 5 percent tuition increase for in-state students for the fall 2009 semester to the Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday.
Under the proposal, continuing in-state juniors would pay $5,316 on the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses and $5,093 on the Polytechnic and West campuses. Sophomores would pay $5,679 on all campuses.
In-state freshmen would pay $5,997.
The rate for continuing in-state graduate students would be $7,128. Out-of-state undergraduate and graduate-student tuition would also increase by 5 percent to $18,582 and $20,322, respectively.
ABOR will vote on recommendations from all state universities in December.
This increase follows the plan ABOR adopted in 2007 that limits tuition increases for returning in-state undergraduates to 5 percent per year for up to five years after enrollment.
The program was designed to give students more predictability over possible future tuition raises, said ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer.
“The limit allows students and families to know that tuition is going to be low and predictable,” Shafer said. “It protects against significant tuition raises from year to year.”
Ryan Caracciolo, president of Associated Students of ASU West, said tuition increases are always a strain on students. But, he said, he’s an optimist by nature.
“I still think it’s affordable,” said Caracciolo, a political science junior. “Do I want it to go up? No. But if it is going to go up, at least it’s predictable.”
Andrew Rigazio, vice president of policy for Undergraduate Student Government in Tempe, said he is glad that Crow is sticking to the 5 percent increase cap but is concerned about the tuition hike.
“Tuition increases have a great effect on accessibility and affordability for students,” Rigazio said.
The Arizona Students’ Association will vote on its own tuition recommendation Friday. The two recommendations will be proposed to ABOR, which will then vote based on the proposals. Rigazio would not discuss the details of ASA’s proposal.
He said two years ago ABOR voted on a compromise of the two plans, and last year the board sided with the president’s proposal.
In addition to the tuition increase, fee increases are being proposed for the colleges of Design, Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, Engineering and Business. The Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness will also propose to align its fee structure with the W.P. Carey School of Business.
These fees are being proposed to provide the appropriate level of instruction and academic support for students, Shafer said.
ASU remains one of the best bargains in the country, having one of the lowest levels of tuition of any senior research university in the nation, Shafer said.
Since 2002, tuition has doubled to compensate for a financially starved University where faculty members who left were not replaced and classes were too large, she said. Student retention and graduation were among the lowest in the Pac-10.
Because of tuition and state funding increases, ASU has been able to hire and retain more faculty and decrease class size, Shafer said.
“This reflects ASU’s graduation rate, which is now 24 percent higher than the average public university,” Shafer said.
Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.
