College tuition costs again rising in Tennessee
By Andy Sher. Another year, another round of tuition and fee hikes left leaders of Tennessee's two higher education systems wringing their hands Thursday over flat funding from the state and how to deal with a future where that may not change.
"We've shifted the cost from a public education to more of a private-driven enterprise" where funding increasingly falls on students and their families, University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro told UT system board trustees. "I'm committed to reversing this trend, but I think we need to go forward and take a hard look at ourselves.
"Frankly," DiPietro said, "we have to look at our whole business model and decide if it's broken or not." He said "We have to develop a plan and build a coalition."
That came shortly before the board, meeting in Knoxville, approved a 6 percent tuition increase for academic year 2014-15 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Along with it came a raft of student fee increases. More...