JACKSON - The outcome of a special session will decide whether Mississippi's eight public universities propose a tuition increase.
Lawmakers, who couldn't agree on a budget during the regular session, are expected to return to the Capitol next month.
One of the budgets they'll consider is the university system. State College Board officials say if the system's funding is reduced, or even remains flat, it could result in a tuition increase.
"The institutions have not submitted their tuition increases yet. We were trying to wait to see what the Legislature would do," said Linda McFall, assistant commissioner for finance and administration.
McFall said an average 7 percent tuition increase was approved in 2004.
Jeff Alford, vice chancellor of university relations for the University of Mississippi, said a tuition increase will be unavoidable at Ole Miss.
"Yes, we're going to have raise tuition. We know we're not going to get a big budget increase. We're going to have to take a cut and how much of a cut we don't know," Alford said Wednesday.
He said Ole Miss hasn't proposed an increase yet.
Only the College Board can approve a tuition increase. If it does, Mississippi would join a number of other states who have boosted the cost of education.
In Georgia, the Board of Regents gave final approval Wednesday to raising tuition at its public universities by as much as 8 percent. That was the second-highest increase since 1987.
Administrators at the University of Arkansas have said they plan to ask the UA System's board of trustees on Friday to increase in-state tuition by 6 percent next year. The 6 percent increase is the least amount administrators have sought since 2001.
Key Mississippi lawmakers met with Gov. Haley Barbour this week for preliminary discussions before the special session.
Budget negotiations collapsed when the House and Senate were unable to agree on funding for K-12 education. The House wanted to come close to the request for elementary and secondary schools, but the Senate argued that would shortchange other agencies, including the universities.
The College Board has requested $647.4 million to operate the universities for the fiscal year that begins July 1. It is an increase of $167.2 million over the current fiscal year.
McFall said the cost of operating the campuses has gone up - from fuel costs to utilities. She said if lawmakers gave the universities the same money as this year, their expenses would exceed that amount by about 3 percent.
Alford said Ole Miss' enrollment increased this year, but that didn't offset the reduction in state funding. He said it created more problems, such as limited dormitory space and crowded classrooms.
Some universities are reluctant to propose a tuition hike, fearing prospective students may look elsewhere if the price is too high, said Roy Hudson, Mississippi Valley's vice president of university relations.
He said a tuition increase is always a last resort because "it forces students to go further in debt" by taking out loans to bridge the gap between available resources and tuition costs.
"In the long run, however, even with that being an issue, tuition increases are necessary," Hudson said.
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