Speaking at an open forum on the Downtown campus Wednesday afternoon, ASU President Michael Crow fielded dozens of student questions on topics covering tuition, diversity issues and potential expansions.
Several students asked questions about rising tuition costs. Crow repeatedly made a point to indicate that tuition is not the only issue to think about when considering costs, saying that financial aid is equally important.
“The way to look at tuition is to look at tuition and financial aid,” Crow said in the discussion at the University Center downtown. The forum was broadcast to students on the Tempe, Polytechnic and West campuses.
Crow urged students to focus their attention to causes that increase the amount of available financial aid, rather than decreasing overall tuition. He said students who rally for lower tuition are actually asking for decreases in resources.
“Whenever you argue for less tuition, you’re arguing for the University to have less resources,” Crow said. “It makes no logical sense.”
State Press Television By Samantha Cary
Crow also said that state legislation plays a key role in what students pay.
The public often votes to support education, he said, citing the passage in May of Proposition 100 — a temporary sales tax increase in the state meant to help increase funding in schools. But he added that students should be aware of how legislators plan to vote in relation to education funding.
“Students will want to be alert to the Legislature, and their fidelity of Prop. 100,” Crow said.
Another issue raised by several students was the privatization of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. This means the school will no longer receive funds from the state, but Crow said it will not mean a change in the University’s relationship to the school.
“There will be no change in the relationship, just a change in the funding model,” Crow said.
Rather than accepting state funds, most of the school’s funds would come from tuition, which would likely increase, he said. The expansion would lead to the college moving to the Downtown campus from the Tempe campus as soon as plans were finalized.
Crow also fielded questions on a larger effort that could lead to increased privatization of University programs, called the Arizona Higher Education Enterprise. The program is a joint effort between ASU, UA and NAU to restructure Arizona’s university system in order to increase efficiency and research development.
Crow and the presidents of UA and NAU presented the plan to the Arizona Board of Regents in September. The plan includes specific mention of the privatization of ASU’s law school as a prototype to gauge the potential success of future privatization.
Philosophy sophomore Joshua Judd, who represents the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the Tempe campus in the Undergraduate Student Government Senate, expressed concern that students were being taken out of the conversation on the issues.
“It seems like several groups are talking about this, and none of them are the students,” Judd said. “We are ready to begin this conversation between the students and our University president.”
Crow responded by saying he meets with student leaders often and that he will facilitate student input on University issues.
“We meet with the student government organizations on a regular basis,” Crow said. “The students should have and will have input.”
Crow also answered questions about the passing of Proposition 107 on Tuesday, which will ban affirmative action programs. He said this would not affect ASU much, as it grants admittance based on merit, not race or gender.
“If you meet our admission standards, you are admitted,” Crow said.
Christian Vasquez, president of the Associated Students of ASU Downtown, said these and three other forums later in the year — one on each campus — give students the chance to pose questions directly to ASU’s administration.
“There are questions that come up from campus to campus,” Vasquez said. “This is their chance to ask those questions directly to [Crow].”
Vazquez said the next forum will be in early December on the Tempe campus.
Reach the reporter at michael.reppenhagen@asu.edu
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