Lake Havasu City will become a public university desert effective June 1, 2025. ASU announced the closure of ASU at Lake Havasu, which will abruptly leave behind 39 jobs and 225 students.
This comes as a response to Arizona State Legislature House Bill 2897, which reduces about $11 million from ASU's budget in the 2025 fiscal year. The University announced that this budget cut — coupled with additional reductions of two important programs — will double that number to $24 million in "estimated real ASU impact."
The University will add a $350 surcharge on tuition for full-time on-campus students starting in the spring of 2025. ASU added that part-time students can expect a "proportional" tuition increase.
READ MORE: ASU adds tuition surcharge for spring 2025, termination of ASU at Lake Havasu
Per the Arizona Board of Regents, ASU had 70,971 full-time on-campus students on the 21st day of instruction for the fall 2024 semester. Based on this number, ASU will accrue about $25 million per semester from the tuition increase, not including the amount from part-time students. In one semester, ASU will have erased the amount it estimated state budget cuts to cost.
Increasing tuition wasn't enough as ASU decided it needed to shut down the Lake Havasu campus, which just celebrated its 12-year anniversary in August. According to the University website, ASU at Lake Havasu opened in the fall of 2012 "to bring an innovative higher-education approach to a location unserved by the state university system." ASU was the first public university to open a campus in Lake Havasu City and the campus offers reduced tuition, a reason many choose to attend.
"To say this has been difficult would be underplaying the emotions," a University employee who asked to remain anonymous said in a text. "It's been a complex series of emotions. They've been working with each of us here to make sure we are being heard."
ASU at Lake Havasu staff and faculty members received an email about the impending campus closure at 9:46 a.m. on Sept. 23. Just 40 minutes later, students received the same email. Biology student Cem Arkun recalled the emotions on campus after the news broke.
"No one really had a lot of time to process or prepare themselves for the students," Arkun said. "Everyone walks in, they start asking questions, the staff obviously don't have any answers because they just found out. It was a really high-anxiety situation."
"It's a day that I’ll never forget," he said.
Since the news broke at the start of a workday, campus staff and faculty were expected to carry out their jobs despite life-changing news. Gavin Leach, a senior studying psychology, shared his disappointment in the University’s decision.
"Us as a culture here have not been fully recognized by ASU," Leach said. "This is the closest option for higher education and closing that down ultimately is going to snuff out a lot of people's chances to have any kind of higher education, especially in the current economy where this is a very financially stable option for a lot of low-income students."
News of the campus' closure sent shockwaves throughout the local town as there were no signs of the campus being at risk.
"I learned about it just shortly before it became public and so we never did have a conversation with the University prior to the decision," Lake Havasu City Mayor Cal Sheehy said. "It really has helped drive economic development in our community ... all of the work that the faculty, staff and students have done on the campus is going to leave a hole within our community."
In February 2011, ASU announced that plans for the Lake Havasu campus were in motion, but depended on the Havasu Foundation for Higher Learning to fundraise $2 million to help cover renovations and first-year operating costs.
The Lake Havasu City community quickly came together to exceed the fundraising goal, and, seven months later, ABOR gave final approval for the ASU at Lake Havasu campus.
"Lake Havasu City is known for making things happen," Sheehy said. "I'm very confident that had we had the opportunity to have a seat at the table during the discussions for a possible decision of closure that we could have come to a solution."
"We're very disappointed this is happening but we are very hopeful we will be able to have discussions with ASU and have a reconsideration of the decision," Sheehy explained.
Regarding the future of ASU at Lake Havasu students, an ASU spokesperson said via email, "Current in-person Lake Havasu students who choose to attend in-person at other ASU campuses or locations can retain the same tuition rate as they paid at Lake Havasu. In addition, many ASU students in the region attend ASU Online; Lake Havasu students are invited to attend online as well if that meets their needs."
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Edited by Abigail Beck, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
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