About a dozen students played dead at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting Thursday on the Tempe campus to protest what they called the death of public education and the student voice in Arizona.
Recent actions by ABOR and the state Legislature have led to student objection over a lack of transparency and student consultation on education issues. The protesters used the public comment session of Thursday’s Board meeting to make a statement.
“The purpose was to symbolize the death of public education in Arizona,” economics junior Danielle Back said. “We’re very concerned with the way education is changing in the state, and the Arizona Board of Regents, President [Michael] Crow and the other university presidents are not taking the students and their input seriously.”
A group of students used the three-minute public speaking time allotted to them to make a few brief statements before falling to the floor in unison, where they remained until security showed up.
The students were asked to clear the floor several times but did not comply until security informed them they could be arrested for trespassing.
Back said the protesters are primarily concerned with budget cuts, tuition increases and the elimination of programs, and that she felt the group adequately conveyed this to the Board.
“President Crow and the Board heard our message,” she said. “They came and talked to us afterward, so they obviously took notice of what we did today.”
But Crow said he didn’t understand the purpose of the demonstration, and ABOR Chairwoman Anne Mariucci said the method they chose to convey their point was ineffective.
“I think making your point is really, really important, but I wasn’t 100 percent certain what their point was,” Crow said.
The first item on the agenda following the students’ protest was an update from each of the universities on their progress toward creating and expanding low-cost options for students.
Most of the protesters left before the end of ASU’s presentation by Crow and Provost Elizabeth Capaldi.
The presentation highlighted ASU’s progress in awarding financial aid and maintaining performance in spite of budget cuts.
One protester stayed through the full presentation and said he no longer wanted to be associated with the demonstration after learning about the University’s financial situation and coming plans for tuition.
He called the protest inane and unnecessary.
Strategic plans
In 2008, ABOR adopted a plan to double the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by public universities by 2020. The plan also stressed the need for new, low-cost options for students to obtain a degree.
Each of the university presidents gave a report on their individual school’s progress toward this goal.
ASU’s update included information about the current cost of attendance and the development of Colleges@ASU, designed to offer limited programs at a low cost.
The original goal was to have two Colleges@ASU accepting students for fall 2011, but Crow said the project is about 12 months behind schedule because of lack of funding.
For the colleges’ construction, host cities must provide the facilities for free or nearly free.
Until now, construction agreements have not been worked out. But Crow and Capaldi announced that plans for a Lake Havasu college will be finalized next week.
While the Colleges program has fallen behind schedule, Crow said ASU has excelled by creating and expanding other low-cost options.
“We have increased the number of graduates, decreased the cost, and increased enrollment from low-income families, all with decreased funding,” Crow said.
Other ways the University plans to increase low-cost options are the expansion of ASU Online programs, the revised academic calendar beginning in spring 2012 and proposed partnerships with two tribal colleges.
Crow called the new academic calendar one of the most innovative approaches the University has seen to date.
The calendar offers two 7.5-week sessions per semester in addition to standard 15-week classes, allowing students more flexibility and options to graduate faster, Capaldi said.
With the 7.5-week sessions, students can graduate in as little as five semesters, cutting tuition almost in half, she said.
Tuition policy
Afternoon conversation was dominated by debate over potential changes to tuition and fee policies.
No official decisions were made, but several options for setting tuition were discussed.
ABOR policy used to require tuition to be at the top of the lower one-third of tuition rates set by all other states.
Two years ago the Board passed a temporary override that allowed tuition to exceed this limit in order to cope with decreased state funding. The override expires in June.
ASU and UA tuition are currently above this limit, and NAU is close to it.
In order to address the tuition issue, an ABOR committee recommended changing the tuition-setting policy to let universities base their tuition on levels of similar institutions.
Although no vote occurred, the proposal had very little support from regents.
Regent Mark Killian called the proposal “an excuse to raise tuition.”
“I care about what’s going on in our institutions, not other states’. I could give you a list of 100 reasons why Arizona is different from other states,” he said.
Regents also discussed extending the override, but Regent Fred DuVal rejected the idea of maintaining the “top of the bottom” language as well.
“I think we’re putting lipstick on a dinosaur,” he said. “It’s a policy that’s a decade old and was written when institutional financial aid was one-fifth of what it is now. How do we capture the new reality of our system in the tuition policy?”
Regent Ernest Calderón asked the Board and university presidents to develop new solutions before a special budget and tuition meeting scheduled for March 8.
Key items to be discussed at the meeting today include the flow of university graduates into the work sector, a request to approve next year’s financial aid plans and instructions for university presidents before the special budget and tuition meeting next month.
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
