How Will the University of Arizona's New Enrollment Policies Affect Learners & Workers?

You may have heard that across the country we are facing an “enrollment crisis”. At the University of Arizona (UA) in particular, administration is predicting 20% lower enrollment this coming 2026-27 school year. Publicly, the university administration claims that the enrollment decline is intentional to improve graduation rates and keep the university from falling into another “financial crisis” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026). Campus workers are raising the alarm on already shrinking budgets, programmatic cuts, and widespread nonrenewals. 

Incoming Class Size Will Be Smaller This Fall

The Arizona Daily Star reported that while the University of Arizona received between 37,000 and 40,000 applications, Provost Prelock says administration is “looking for a class size in the 7,000-8,000 range”. The Chronicle of Higher Education is calling the University of Arizona “the University that chose to shrink” in a new article on UA’s new admissions requirements. In the same Arizona Daily Star article, faculty express frustration at the lack of internal information about the new admissions process, saying “what is the rubric, how is it that you’re rejecting people who we know in the past would’ve been accepted”. 

The New Admissions Process & Enrollment Policies

This spring, the UA administration announced changes to the admissions process. The UA’s current Provost Patricia Prelock states that “The U of A’s core admission requirements have not changed” and claims that the new enrollment process will increase the “quality” of student education (Arizona Daily Star, 2026). The University of Arizona’s own “Admissions Process” page explains no functional differences in the process. In an accordion style question and answer section on the bottom of the page, the question “are the admissions requirements changing” is answered with “no, the University’s admissions requirements will stay the same”. However, the new admission requirements are significantly different than in years previous, without input from the university’s own advising and orientation experts and without advance notice to student applicants. Dr. Gary Rhoades, a professor in the UA’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, identifies the new admissions requirements as “driving us off an enrollment cliff of our own making, in a managerially self-inflicted wound” (Tucson Sentinel, 2026).

Some of the biggest changes to the UA enrollment process include:

• A 3.0 GPA only qualifies for guaranteed admission if students meet the number of required high school courses with no "deficiencies" (KGUN9). 
• New Start (a program aimed at first-gen, low income, underrepresented students, started in 1969) is now by invitation-only, rather than open to any newly-admitted first-year student. The invitation-only model is likely to reduce the number of participating students from the annual average of 200-400 to 125.
• A transition from a rolling admissions system to Early Action system (a recent Inside Higher Ed article argued this system benefits affluent white students). 

UA's Land-Grant Mission

The University of Arizona is a land-grant university, one of only 57 in the country (AZ Daily Star, 2024). “At the University of Arizona, the land-grant mission is more than just a designation—it’s a living commitment to the people of Arizona.” (Research & UA’s Land-Grant Mission). However, UA’s new enrollment requirements are designed to increase the number of out-of-state students and “high-performing” in-state students, de-prioritizing educational outcomes for Arizona students.

Already, there have been campus-wide layoffs and non-renewals, and the disappearance of summer opportunities for campus employees. In some departments, staff are being asked to prepare two types of budgets for the upcoming year - one that maintains a business-as-usual outlook, and one that reflects 5% cuts. In an interview with KGUN9 last spring, Logan Phillips spoke on his non-renewal in the UA’s writing program “The University says there’s lower enrollment so a lower need for writing teachers” (KGUN9, 2025). How can the closure of cultural resource centers, tightening of admissions process to the point of exclusion, and slashing the number of instructors be investing in the quality of student education?

Workers, Now Is The Time To Unite

The University of Arizona is one of the largest employers in southern Arizona. As the result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, AZ Luminaria was able to obtain an extensive list of public salaries, which you can view here. Making workers do “more with less” as the result of an intentional enrollment crisis while upper administration maintains enormous, bloated salaries is unacceptable. 

Misguided changes to the University of Arizona admission policies undermine its mission as a land-grant institution, diminish student enrollments, and weaken job security for campus workers. Our working conditions are our students' learning conditions: a quality education for incoming students is on the line. 

We urge you to organize with your coworkers to push back against cuts. Our voices together are stronger than they are apart. Join your union today!