Regents may boost employee performance bonuses

To become more in sync with Arizona state law, the Arizona Board of Regents will review increasing its amount of compensation for performance-based incentives to $275 from $275.

Currently, the Board of Regents has a $200 limit, while Arizona law is set at $275. If passed, the revision will permit universities to provide incentives of up to $275 per month, per employee.

Board to get financial aid report card’

The Board of Regents will receive a report on financial aid at its meetings today and tomorrow at Northern Arizona University.

The report, which details the dollar amount of financial aid funds that have been distributed this year, comes as a “”report card”” prior to the Board of Regents meeting in December, which will set tuition for the next fiscal year, said Mark Denke, a financial aid specialist working with the Board of Regents.

According to the ABOR agenda, the total financial aid in the university system amounted to $988.9 million, an increase of $56 million from last year.

Similarly, the number of people in the university system who received financial aid was 93,646, an increase of 3,474.

The average dept for undergraduates at graduation has increased 5 percent, to an average of $18,029 from $17,173. The amount of post-degree debt for graduate graduate students has increased 6.1 percent, to $35,880 from $33,806.

This information will be considered as regents devise the next set of tuition and fee rates.

UA seeks funds for Phoenix buildings, Downtown project

The UA will submit its capital improvement plan to the Board of Regents for approval tomorrow.

The two items on the plan are a $333 million request to build a pair of buildings within the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix, and a $130 million request to unite the UA Science Center and the Arizona State Museum as part of the Downtown revitalization project, Rio Nuevo.

Project funding will come from a combination of gifts, Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Tax Increment Financing and debt financing, according to the ABOR agenda. If the requests are approved, the Board will submit them to Gov. Janet Napolitano by Oct. 15.

Plans submitted for new hotel, conference center

The UA will submit plans for approval and release of revenue bonds to build a hotel and conference center at the UA Science and Technology Park.

The hotel would have approximately 125 rooms, 10,000 square feet of conference space and a restaurant, and will cost an estimated $26 million.

The hotel will provide hospitality services to the surrounding area on 4-6 acres of land on the park’s western end.

IBM, Raytheon and Citigroup currently generate demand for 50-75 hotel rooms per day, as there is no hotel within seven miles of the park, according to the ABOR agenda.

The hotel would be a Hyatt Summerfield Suites, according to the agenda. Neither ABOR nor the UA would be responsible for financing the hotel, as it would be funded by revenue bonds. The hotel would be required to add $2 million toward the cost of installing infrastructure improvements of sewer, water, roads and parks, according to the agenda.