For the seventh consecutive year, University of Memphis students will experience tuition hikes at the beginning of the fall semester.
While the raise won't be official until the Tennessee Board of Regents decides on Friday, officials said Wednesday that the it's inevitable.
"We are recommending that the board increase tuition by six percent," said TBR spokesperson Mary Morgan.
But students' wallets won't be let off the hook that easy this fall.
"If you include fees, the overall cost for students is going up 10.4 percent," said TBR board member Bill Watkins.
He said a large part of that amount goes toward athletic fees, which are going from $200 to $400 per year.
U of M students should be used to it. Tuition at Tennessee schools has grown 85 percent over the past decade, while the national average has increased 72 percent.
The hike comes despite an extra $70 million in funds the state allotted for higher education. The additional revenue will come from the raise of the cigarette tax from 20 cents a pack to 62 cents.
In fact, while enthusiastically supporting the bill in the spring, TBR said students and their families would bare the financial burden if the additional revenue did not come through.
But through a U of M spokesman, President Shirley Raines said the tobacco tax was not enough to offset the additional cost of operating The University.
Watkins said he expects University costs to rise four to five percent next year.
He said that tuition would have gone up even higher if the tobacco tax hadn't passed.
According to Raines, The University funding comes primarily from three sources - one-third from donors, one-third from state funds and one-third from students.
But Watkins said the higher tobacco tax is going to fund the 3 percent state mandated raise for University employees.
Raines said that is the primary concern for The U of M.
"The first priority of the University of Memphis is to improve salaries of faculty and staff," Raines said in an e-mail to faculty.
