Over the summer the Board of Regents from the NMSU campus OK’d a 6 percent increase in tuition and fees for the NMSU main campus.

The increase was put on hold in April of this year. Regents had voted on 5-0 to postponed the tuition-hike proposal because the state Legislature and Gov. Susana Martinez had not finalized the state’s budget and funding for universities. Which has been done since then.

With the campus already suffering from declining enrollment, a tuition increase is needed to make up for the lost money.

“We still need the 6 percent blended (tuition and fees) rate,” NMSU Chancellor, Garey Carruthers, told the Las Cruces Sun-News. “The increase we’re asking for does not cover our losses from (state appropriations) over the last two years, which was more like $9.5 million.”

In-state, main-campus student taking 12 credit hours will pay $184 more per semester under the tuition increase, and student taking 15 credit hours or more will pay $197 more per semester. While out-of-state students taking 15 credits or more are looking for a $733 increase per semester.

The college has lost about 700 positions in the past seven years, and increasing tuition would avoid cutting any more staff members.

All in all, the campus will only bene t from the tuition and increase and the quality of education will only continue to increase as well.

Regents from the campus have approved the following:

· 4.9 percent for NMSU Alamogordo
· 15.2 percent for NMSU Carlsbad
· 5.9 percent for Doña Ana Community College · 8.9 percent for NMSU Grants