3:18 p.m.

Those of you who are interested can view the regents’ enterprise plan, a series of performance metric goals up to 2020, here.

3:08 p.m.

The board is discussing progress on institutional enterprise goals. According to numbers from the regents, the UA is above projections for the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded and six-year graduation rates. The UA has not reached board projections for the number of community college transfers, the number of those transfers that receive a bachelor’s degree, or the freshman retention rate.

1:59 p.m.

The meeting is about to get back underway, but here’s an earlier update. The board elected its officers for next year.

In a unanimous vote the board voted to appoint Regent Rick Myers as chairman. Myers has served on the board since January 2010 and is the chairman of the Academic Affairs and System Architecture Committee. He is also a member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. Mark Killian, who also joined the board in January 2010, will serve another term as board treasurer. LuAnn Leonard, who has sat on the board since 2008, will be vice chair. She is the current vice chair but is also serving as the board secretary. Next year’s secretary will be Dennis DeConcini, a former U.S. senator who has sat on the board since 2006. All officers will officially assume their positions on July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

11:45 a.m.

When asked about how the expiration of this year’s $750 tuition credit for resident undergraduate students would affect financial aid, Sander said he couldn’t be sure of the specifics but that it would be subject to regent-mandated financial aid. The board requires that at lease 17 percent of every tuition dollar be subsidized by some kind of institutional aid.

“You do the math,” Sander said. “It’s a fair amount of money.”

11:21 a.m.

The regents have approved rate changes for on-campus housing. Details below.

Tier one residence halls (Likins Hall, Arbol de la Vida, Coronado): $7,519, $179 increase

Tier two residence halls (Arizona-Sonora, Del Puente, La Cienega,
La Paz, Parker, Pima, San Pedro): $6,819, $171 increase

Tier three residence halls (Apache-Santa Cruz, Cochise, Gila, Graham-Greenlee, Kaibab-Huachuca,Manzanita-Mohave, Maricopa, Yuma): $6,069, $147 increase

Tier four residence halls (Arizona Triples, Babcock, Coconino, Navajo-Pinal, Hopi, Yavapai): $5,399, $129 increase

Graduate apartments in the La Aldea complex will see an average 2.54 percent decrease in rent next year.

11:17 a.m.

The regents have approved the tuition proposal for the College of Medicine. $27,850 for residents, $46,467 for nonresidents.

11:11 a.m.

With no discussion, the regents have approved the UA’s proposal for differential fees and tuition next year.

11 a.m.

The regents have unanimously approved the UA’s tuition proposal for next year.

Tuition and mandatory fees, 2012-2013:
$10,035 for resident undergraduates
$26,231 for nonresident undergraduates
$7,941 for resident undergraduates at UA South
$25,808 for nonresident undergraduates at UA South
$11,122 for resident graduate students
$26,533 for nonresident graduate students
$10,390 for resident graduate students at UA South
$26,110 for nonresident graduate students at UA South

10:37 a.m.

Regent Mark Killian said that he hopes one day Arizona’s universities are the cheapest in the nation and provide the highest quality and that the state Legislature needs to have the same goal.

“That’s what we need to stress to our Legislature. We need to be the epicenter of education in America,” he said.

Killian also said that the Legislature needs to understand that there is a “public interest in investing in public education.”

“I’d rather be paying for tuition than welfare checks,” he said.

10:28 a.m.

Regent DeConcini asked the three university presidents if they could generally project what tuition proposals might look like next year. Sander said that it’s difficult to “look into that crystal ball,” particularly since the state budget is in flux due to the expiration of the Proposition 100 sales tax and potential new costs from the federal health care law.

“One of the reasons I really really wanted to hold the line this year was that, with those uncertainties, we may not be able to in the future,” he said.

9:57 a.m.

UA President Eugene Sander presented his tuition proposal for next year, which features no increase for resident undergraduate students and a 3 percent increase for all other segments of the UA student population. Sander said this is the first time in 20 years that the UA has not increased tuition for resident, undergraduate students.

9:49 a.m.

So far, five speakers during the call to the audience have called on Regent Dennis DeConcini and Regent Anne Mariucci to resign their positions on the Board of Directors for the Corrections Corporation of America, a private, for-prison prison company. We received a guest column on the subject, and should have a printed response from DeConcini sometime early next week.

9:43 a.m.

During the call to the audience session Shelby Vogl, the president of the UA Residence Hall Association, said she hopes the board will accept the proposed “very modest” proposal in rates this year. That proposal would increase rent in amounts ranging from $129 for tier four halls such as Navajo-Pinal Residence Hall and Hopi Lodge, to $179 for tier one halls such as Coronado Residence Hall, Likins Hall and Árbol de la Vida Residence Hall.

That agenda item will be voted on later today.

9:15 a.m.

We’re about 15 minutes away from the start of the meeting. The first item on the agenda is setting tuition rates at all three Arizona universities for next year. You can view some of the highlights of today’s agenda here.