Any tuition increase for state college students next year will be a lot less than what they faced this fall.

NSCS Chancellor Stan Carpenter told the Wayne Stater on Friday that if there is a tuition increase for next year, it won’t be nearly as high as last year’s increase of 9.3 percent, which was determined in the June NSCS Board meeting.

The Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees determines what the budget will be for Nebraska state colleges, and tuition increases are then adjusted to meet this budget.

“Students should be aware of what’s going on with that budget,” Trustee Bob Engles said. “There’s a direct correlation between how much we spend and what you student’s spend in tuition.”

Carpenter said that this last increase was needed to help continue to run things.

“We hired new faculty, got new equipment and we’re investing in the colleges,” Carpenter said. “The 3 percent allocated by the state just wasn’t enough.”

A 9.3 percent increase, though, is a troubling figure and one that not all board members thought was justifiable.

“My main objection with last year’s increase is that I didn’t see where we were getting a whole lot of bang for our buck,” Engles said.