The UA Board of Regents voted at their Sept. 21 meeting in Anchorage to raise the age of eligibility for seniors seeking tuition waivers and approved a planned tuition increase.

Previously, seniors were eligible at 60; now they must be at least 65, the same age required for Social Security retirement benefits.

Current students eligible under the old policy as of Sept. 21 will be allowed to remain in the program.

Regents also increased tuition for students by $10 per credit, following the 10 percent tuition hike each year for the past three years. The increase was approved by a vote of 8-2.

The board elected not to address the proposed additional 7 percent tuition increase for 2007.

UA president Mark Hamilton gave reasons for the tuition increase in a press release from the UA Office of Public Affairs.

"Nobody likes to have to pay more, but the truth is a top-notch education at any one of our University of Alaska campuses is still less expensive than at many of our counterparts in the Lower 48," Hamilton said.

Public Affairs cited the senior tuition waiver for an estimated $400,000 in lost revenue annually. The demographic is expected to triple in the next five years.

Some students at the UAA campus were asked by their instructor during class about the senior tuition waiver. Dieter Wuerth, professor of history and geography, asked students in three of his Tuesday courses to raise their hands if they thought Hamilton was right to attempt denying seniors a tuition waiver.

"In all three classes, only two [students from a class of 50] voted against senior tuition," Wuerth said.

Senior citizen Frank Bevo, a second-year freshman in computer information operating systems, attends UAA via the senior tuition waiver. His income is $746 a month and comes from social security.

"I had one [student loan]. I defaulted. In October, I will have my six months in [reenrollment time period required to apply after defaulting on loans] and I will be able to get money," Bevo said. "People ask me what I'm going to do. I'd like to become a full-time student. Without the senior waiver there is no way I'd be able to make it."

Bevo has been relying on Social Security and the senior waiver for the past three months.

"I stay with friends. I've got a nice room. I pay them $400 a month," Bevo said. "If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to make it. All of my social security would go to rent. It's not that cheap anymore."

Bevo said the $400,000 in lost revenue from the senior tuition waiver doesn't make sense with the way the program is set up.

"I read it in the catalog. It said the seniors are the last ones to register, because we're not paying," Bevo said. "It's the system that I'm looking at. It's not costing you any more money to waiver those seniors. If the class is not full, a senior can get in, but he has to wait and late-register to get in."

During the regents' meeting, while increasing the tuition and senior waiver age, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich, university officials and regents attended a ceremony, with cake, for the renaming of the Business Education Building on the UAA campus.

The building is now the Edward and Cathryn Rasmuson Hall, after university supporters Ed and Cathy Rasmuson.

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