ASU plan to shore up losses won't sit well with out-of-state, international students

In response to the coronavirus crisis, Arizona State University is angling to increase tuition for both out-of-state and international students. 

The Arizona Board of Regents approved the ASU tuition proposal that effectively allows ASU to increase out-of-state and international tuition at a cap of 5 percent. ASU has not indicated whether out-of-state tuition would be raised in the next academic year.

The proposal asks that the Arizona Board of Regents set a maximum tuition rate equal to the 2019-20 academic year, adjusted within 5 percent . for the next three years. Actual numbers for tuition and fees for 2020-21 would be determined at a later date.

[RELATED: Arizona colleges SUED after refusing to refund students amid coronavirus closures]

In a public statement, ASU President Michael Crow said the proposal, “provides ASU with the flexibility needed in assessing the changing landscape and responding effectively to economic circumstances.” Crow asked the Arizona Board of Regents to provide ASU with greater flexibility to set out-of-state and international tuition rates. 

Crow says this flexibility will allow ASU to continue to “provide students the high-quality education that keeps them on track for continued progress toward their academic and career goals”.

According to the State Press, Arizona State is committed to keeping resident tuition the same. Arizona Board of Regents Chair Larry  E. Penly told the State Press that “this is not the time to raise resident tuition.”

[RELATED: ASU takes pages from Trump playbook on campus re-opening]

In addition to the proposal to raise out-of-state, international tuition, the Residence Hall Association of Arizona State’s Tempe campus has voiced support for increasing dining rates. In a statement to the State Press, RHA Executive Director Jailene Matrecito said, “the rates presented for the direction and development this institution hopes to work toward.”

“While I understand the rationale behind out-of-state tuition being more expensive than in-state tuition, it is not fair to place the burden of financial implications of COVID-19 on out-of-state students,” out-of-state ASU student and political science major Arjun Rondla told Campus Reform.

”Out-of-state students are suffering from the COVID-19 recession in the same ways that in-state students are, while also paying nearly three times the tuition of in-state students, before the fee increases,” added Rondla. “ABOR must recognize that they are choosing to exclusively indebt and burden a specific group of students, rather than distribute the fee increase more fairly.”

ASU received more CARES Act federal bailout funding than any other American university, coming in at a total of $63.5 million. 

The school is also being sued for refusing to offer room and board refunds to students who were forced off-campus due to the university’s coronavirus response plan.

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