Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslem addresses those in attendance at MTSU for the signing or bill which will enable Hope Scholarship recipients at all state universities to use, as full-time students, up to $2,000 per semester in fall, spring, and summer semesters up to a 120-credit hour cap.
Photo by Jim Davis/DNJNASHVILLE – College tuition could rise this fall by 9.5 percent or even higher for students at Chattanooga State, Cleveland State and other Tennessee Board of Regents colleges and universities, authorities said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the University of Tennessee’s vice president for public and government relations, Hank Dye, said the UT board of trustees will also consider increases in the “same general ballpark” at its institutions such as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Officials are pinning blame for the sharper-than-expected increases on a variety of factors, including cuts of 2 percent or about $20 million in state appropriations for higher education in the budget year starting July 1.
Moreover, the Board of Regents and UT systems are continuing to digest the loss of nearly $300 million in federal stimulus funds on July 1, officials said. And the systems also must foot the bill for part of a 1.6 percent pay increase for employees.
Students previously were bracing for 7 percent hikes based on recommendations made last November by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. But the UT and Board of Regents system boards are not bound by that, officials say.