AZ Tuition Hikes Make National News!

The ABOR meeting last night was standing room only, even in the extra over-flow room, where attendees could watch the proceedings on a video screen. Students voiced their outrage at the huge tuition and fee hikes. Unfortunately, only 8 of the 48 audience members signed up to speak actually were able to make it to the microphone. Forty-five minutes of the two-hour meeting were taken up with administrators and student representatives from the various campuses giving their statements, leaving little time for the public to comment.

Luckily, you can still contact the regents:
Arizona Board of Regents
2020 North Central Ave., Ste. 230
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: (602) 229-2500
E-mail peggy.martin@azregents.edu

One of the highlights was definitely Connor Mendenhall's statement (he is the administrator for the Mad Fee Party on Facebook:"Four years ago, when I entered the University of Arizona as a freshman, I paid $85 in mandatory fees. Should you approve President Shelton’s latest fee proposals, students like me will pay $873–a tenfold increase in just four years."

But our absolute favorite part of Connor's statement was: "No student in the state of Arizona should be denied access to public education because he cannot afford to pay for a gym membership, organic fruit in the student union, or plasma-screen televisions in the library."

Did we make it on the news? Oh, yeah.

The AZ Star's Becky Pallack's article emphasizes the outrage: "Students said they were "disappointed," "shocked" and "irate" at tuition and fee increases proposed for the three state universities."

The Wildcat's Article isn't half bad either. Check out the sign: "Fee Hikes are Pay Cuts for GATs and GRAs."

And now it has made the national news!!! Check out the New York Times article from the Associated Press: "Chris Campos, a philosophy sophomore at UA, said the proposed 31 percent increase is ''nothing short of criminal.'' "

Fox 11 news calls the tuition hikes: "whopping," "astronomical" and the "highest in history."



Apparently a lot more of it made it onto the 10 o'clock news, but we haven't been able to find the video yet. If you get a find it, please e-mail us the link! sallygradstudent@gmail.com