Taxpayers frustrated with the failures of the Arizona Board of Regents are hoping their State Representatives will send a strong message and kill SB1368. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Paul Boyer, which funds the Regents, is set to be heard by the Arizona House Education Committee on Tuesday.
Senators Barto, Borrelli, Gowan, Leach, Petersen, Rogers, Townsend, and Ugenti-Rita voted against the bill when it passed through the Senate on February 23.
Senator Vince Leach attempted unsuccessfully to amend the bill in order to reduce the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) continuation from eight years to four years.
The Arizona Constitution establishes ABOR to act as the governing body of Arizona’s public university system. The House Education Committee of Reference and Senate Education Committee of Reference (COR) held a public meeting on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, but it was characterized as a “dog and pony show.” As evidence of that assessment, Rep. Regina Cobb, chair of the House Appropriations Committee aggressively shut down questioning of ASU President Michael Crow by Rep. Jake Hoffman.
As previously reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, Hoffman confronted Crow about an embarrassing situation in early January in which a fundraiser for ASU’s Political History and Leadership program was cancelled abruptly by University officials. The event honoring esteemed Arizonans Dan and Carleen Brophy was to be hosted by Congressman Andy Biggs, with former Congressman Jason Chaffetz serving as the keynote speaker.
RELATED ARTICLE: Cobb Shuts Down Questioning By Hoffman Of ASU’s Crow About “High-Profile Racism” Incidents
Over the years, and especially during Governor Doug Ducey’s tenure, the Regents have largely thumbed their noses at taxpayers, legislators, and even Arizona’s Attorney General.
In February 2020, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) filed suit against ABOR and ASU alleging violations of Arizona’s constitutional gift clause ban concerning an Omni Hotel project in Tempe. The AGO alleged that ABOR violated the gift clause ban by gifting Omni Hotel almost $37 million dollars up front in discounted property valuations and by paying for a parking garage and conference center for the hotel.
Despite ASU paying $19.5 million to build the conference center, the contract only allows ASU to use the conference center 7 days per year. Records indicate that ASU valued the property located at the corner of Mill and University at $85/sq. ft., yet directly across the street, the Hilton Canopy paid $212/sq. ft. in a deal signed the day before the Omni deal was announced.
| FY 2023 AZ GENERAL FUND SUMMARY ABOR $31,596,900.00 ASU $363,441,500.00 NAU $126,552,800.00 UofA – Main Campus $236,364,500.00 Uof A – Health Sciences Center $76,897,700.00 |
In 2018, the AGO brought a lawsuit against ABOR, alleging that tuition is too high at the state’s three public universities in violation of the Arizona constitution’s guarantee of a college education that’s “as nearly free as possible.”
The AGO had argued that the “process by which ABOR has increased tuition contravenes the Arizona Constitution’s mandate that “the instruction furnished at Arizona’s public universities shall be as nearly free as possible.” ABOR nonetheless adopted a tuition-setting process that did not consider the cost of instruction as a factor when setting tuition, but rather looked at other factors such as students’ ability to pay by taking on debt. Subsequently, tuition has skyrocketed at Arizona’s three public universities.”
ABOR claimed that the universities have had to struggle with declining state support. However, the AG noted in court filings:
“ABOR increased tuition in lock-step across all three universities by over 300%, greatly exceeding funding cuts from the Legislature. ABOR also has imposed mandatory fees unrelated to instruction and charged higher rates to part-time and online students.”
The court found that the AGO lacked standing in that case.
RELATED ARTICLE: Arizona Appeals Court Rejects AG’s Tuition Lawsuit Against Regents
Despite the fact that ABOR and the universities need the support of legislators and are losing the support of taxpayers due to the increased politicization of coursework and the proliferation of “Grievance Studies” courses, the universities continue their attack on Arizona lawmakers.
This just weekend, a tweet from @libsoftiktok went viral, in which ASU was called out for an American Government class at Arizona State University which is “promoting the false narrative that requiring an ID to vote is voter suppression.”
This is a slide in an American Government class at Arizona State University @ASU. They are promoting the false narrative that requiring an ID to vote is voter suppression. pic.twitter.com/iFTblisSom
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 18, 2022
After the controversial 2020 General Election, Arizona lawmakers have attempted to pass some commonsense election reform, including popular rules requiring ID to vote.
ABOR’s duties include: 1) employing university presidents; 2) fixing tuition and fees according to an adopted process; 3) annually submitting a budget request and adopting an operating budget for each university; 4) establishing curricula that serve the state’s interest; and 5) prescribing student admission qualifications, including guaranteed admission policies to ensure fair and equitable access to students in Arizona. ABOR consists of 10 Governor-appointed members, including two student members, and the Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction as ex officio members (A.R.S. §§ 15-1621 and 15-1626).