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Students statewide push tuition freeze Tuition at UA going up 9 percent, more for out-of-state students UA tuition increase 9.8% Plan: Univ. funds hinge on students

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University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton has recommended that Arizona undergraduates pay almost 10 percent more to attend the UA next year. The increase is part of his larger recommendation to boost tuition and fees for all students.

The presidents of Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University have suggested increases, but with caps to guarantee that tuition wouldn't go up again above a specific percentage or beyond a certain number of years.

Students, not surprisingly, are opposed to any increases. They're trying to persuade the Arizona Board of Regents, which will set tuition and fees for the three public universities at its meeting Dec. 6 and 7 in Tempe, to freeze tuition.

The Arizona Students' Association is organizing a card drive, asking students to sign cards protesting tuition increases. According to a story last Friday by the Star's Eric Swedlund, about half of the approximately 5,000 cards that had been filled out at that point were signed by UA students.

The students say they're shouldering a disproportionate share of the financial burden, and they make a valid point. Five years ago, resident undergraduate tuition and fees at all three public universities tallied $2,583. If Shelton's proposal for next year is approved, tuition at the UA would be $5,274 a year for Arizona-resident undergrads.

We're not optimistic that the students' efforts will prevail. State budget shortfalls of a predicted $800 million combined with a shortsighted attitude toward higher education from too many legislators likely remove any chance of a tuition freeze.

However, the tuition increases force many students to take out student loans and acquire years of debt that will only hurt Arizona's economy. According to the Institute of Higher Education Policy, in 2003 the average Arizona college student borrowed more than $3,600, and Arizona's rate of student debt ranks among the highest in the nation.

Graduating with heavy debt from years of borrowing for college puts people who are starting out in the job market at an economic disadvantage. They'll have less money to use to buy a house, less to invest, less to spend in their community. Struggling to pay for a child's education can leave families strapped for years.

College degrees translate to higher earning power throughout a person's lifetime. But those financial rewards don't only benefit the particular graduate — they carry over to businesses and governments. It makes sense to invest in higher education.

Shelton wants to shift the current attitude about education from a view that sees it as an expenditure to one that understands education spending as an investment.

He wants legislators to think differently about funding higher education. His "Arizona Assurance" program would show students that an institution with top faculty is also affordable. It would create a bigger financial-aid savings bank so that the students most in need could attend the UA without paying tuition and fees. The UA Office of Student Financial Aid has already started the program, which will need to garner support from both the state and private industry to succeed.

To combat the low UA faculty retention rate, Shelton has proposed a competitive investment fund that would match state money to private money and creates endowed chairs for research grants of $1 million or more brought in by faculty members.

This is intended to keep faculty from leaving for higher-paying jobs at other colleges and marks a shift in state funding from being based solely on quantity toward more competitive funding based on rewarding quality.

Tuition hikes are hard on students, hard on families and aren't a long-term solution for funding higher education in Arizona. We wish the Legislature would understand that it makes economic and social sense to invest in all levels of education, including universities, even when budgets are tight.