The University of Maine System students would see their tuition and fees rise next year under a proposed budget approved at committee level on Wednesday.
After keeping tuition flat last year, the proposed budget would increase in-state tuition by about 3%, while tuition for out-of-staters would climb by 3% to 9%, across the system's campuses.
Trustee Roger Katz says that the increases will enable the system to preserve programming for students.
"But when the cost of everything else is going up significantly in everyone's lives, I think the alternative would be cutting things, which would negatively impact students, which we all wanted to avoid," Katz says.
System officials note that, adjusted for inflation, Maine's tuition and fees have actually fallen by 5% over the past five years.
The system's Vice Chancellor for Finance, Ryan Low, says that while good for students, that's meant less revenue for the seven campuses.
The budget must still be approved by the university system's full board next month.
The system is facing some major budget challenges, led by continually declining enrollment on several campuses.
To make up for some of those deficits, the system is also planning to tap into more than $10 million in campus reserves.
