A lawsuit filed last week by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office claiming tuition hikes at the state’s higher education institutions are unconstitutional drew mixed reactions on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.
The lawsuit claims ABOR misunderstood its mandate from the state constitution to make the cost of instruction “as nearly free as possible.” The suit alleges they took that to mean the most affordable cost a student could pay the university overall.
“ABOR has dramatically and unconstitutionally increased the price of in-state tuition and mandatory fees at Arizona’s public universities by 315 to 370 percent, such that those costs alone are now $10,792 to $12,228 per year,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.
On Monday, the regents held a special meeting to discuss the lawsuit.
“The suit is full of attacks, but offers no constructive remedies,” read a statement from ABOR Chair William Ridenour. “The justice he seeks will not, and should not, be found at the courthouse.”
USGD does not support the lawsuit. Ryan Leith, USGD Vice President of Policy, said the lawsuit takes tuition increases out of context. The Downtown Campus Dean of Students declined to comment.
“Clearly as consumers of education, we are always opposed to increasing costs… but in general the lawsuit kind of overlooks a lot of the context as to why tuition has been rising so fast over the last decade as well as misplacing a lot of the blame for those tuition increases,” Leith said.
If tuition were to be arbitrarily capped at a certain level, Leith said, it could harm ASU’s ability to provide an outstanding education to its students.
“The way that I always put it is that, ASU is successful when its students are successful and students are successful when they can afford to go to college,” said Leith.
ABOR said the Great Recession reduced funding available for in-state university students heavily in the past 10 years. The state legislature made several cuts to education during this period.
Leith said the lack of investment from the state legislature, such as having state money go toward prisons instead of education, is the biggest reason for these statewide tuition hikes.
An ASU on-campus full-time and part-time student pays tuition as well as additional mandatory fees. Examples of these include the athletics fee, recreation fee and a student programs fee.
These fees pay for some of the services students enjoy outside of the classroom. The athletics fee allows students to go to athletic events for free and the recreation fee helps cover the cost of the Sun Devil Fitness Center and intramurals. The student programs fee allows student organizations to draw from these collected funds for student-oriented clubs and events as well as funding to travel and attend professional development events.
These fees were a point of criticism in the lawsuit because they are included in tuition but fall outside the cost needed for instruction.
Jade Yeban, USGD Vice President of Services, defends the need for these fees.
“These fees enhance the student experience, being able to fund student events is another thing that adds value to our university,” Yeban said.
By having these fees, Yeban said, it subsequently gets more students involved and allows more access to events and resources for students.
These fees being included in tuition though means students sometimes end up paying for services they may not personally use.
Yeban said USGD is working to inform the student body on these fees and where this money is spent. She said by getting more students engaged and aware of this legislation, the student government and students can be better advocates.
Leith, Yeban and the USGD Executive Board will attend the ABOR board meetings regularly including the next one in two weeks.
Leith said, at this point it is difficult to say how this lawsuit will affect ASU. Right now USGD will be waiting to see what action ABOR will be taking before they advocate for anything themselves.
Contact the reporter at aetarple@asu.edu.
