Anne Ryman

The Republic | azcentral.com

University of Arizona undergraduates will have tuition rates guaranteed for four years.

Undergraduate students attending two of the three state universities this fall will know exactly what their tuition rates will be for the next four years.

The Arizona Board of Regents, in a sharp departure from tradition, approved a guaranteed tuition plan for the first time at the University of Arizona for undergraduates and voted to continue a similar program in existence for several years at Northern Arizona University.

At Arizona State University, tuition for in-state, undergraduates won't go up. But the university will add a $150-per-student fee to fund athletics, bringing annual tuition and fees to $10,157 a year. ASU isn't starting a guaranteed tuition plan.

Graduate and out-of-state students will face higher increases at ASU. ASU graduate students, for example, will pay 4.3 percent more, an increase to $11,283 a year, in tuition and fees.

The change to guaranteed tuition comes partly at the urging of Gov. Jan Brewer, who, in her January State of the State address, said families are "flat-out tired" of unpredictable rates. Brewer asked the regents, who oversee the state university system, to set up a stable tuition model for in-state residents.

NAU has offered guaranteed tuition for several years where tuition rates for undergraduates are frozen for eight semesters. A new, higher rate is set for each incoming freshman class. This fall, new students will pay 2.6 percent more, or $9,989 a year.

The UA's guaranteed tuition plan for in-state, undergraduates would be 6-percent more than what current students pay with the rates good for eight semesters, or $10,957 a year. Current in-state, undergraduates will see a 2-percent increase to $10,581 a year.

During the recession, students were hit with sharp tuition increases. The regents nearly doubled tuition and fees after losing $428 million, or 50 percent, of their per-student state funding amid the financial crisis.

The increases have tapered off as the economy has improved. But the steep increases during the recession are the main reason students pushed for guaranteed tuition, said Morgan Abraham, UA student-body president.

University officials say most students don't pay the published tuition price after grants and scholarships are factored in.

Guaranteed tuition, also sometimes called fixed tuition, is something of a trend but is not the norm.

Public universities in Illinois offer fixed-tuition plans as do some individual universities in other states, including the University of Kansas and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Guaranteed tuition does have its downsides. The guarantee doesn't extend to fees so students could still see their costs go up if universities add more fees. And families may not save money in the long run; the anticipated tuition increases are already baked into the rate.

ASU isn't adopting a guaranteed-tuition plan. But ASU President Michael Crow said the university's 10-year strategic plan calls for annual tuition increases ranging from zero to 3 percent.

"That's predictable. That's modest. That's what we're focused on," he told regents last month during a meeting on tuition.

The $150-per-year mandatory fee to fund athletics will generate $10 million a year for the athletics department. ASU's athletics program, like many in the country, runs a deficit and relies on subsidies from the university to make up the difference. Crow said the switch to a fee will free up money for the university to use elsewhere.

The athletic fee has the support of all four student governments at ASU campuses as well as the university's Graduate and Professional Student Association. But at least one regent voiced concern over the additional fee at a meeting last month.

Regent Dennis DeConcini said the fee should have been put out for a vote of all students through a referendum, rather than having student governments endorse the concept.

Athletics, he said, is a fundamental part of the university system.

"When the students pay tuition and pay all the class fees and everything, it seems like there ought to be something there that doesn't cost them," he said.

The regents also received at least five personal letters from parents or students asking them to reject the athletic fee.

Regent Mark Killian said he was supporting the tuition proposals for the universities, but he said it was time for a larger public-policy debate on college affordability and funding.

"I worry down the road about the continued increase in tuition."