Beginning fall 2009, Tennessee State University students will pay for every hour of coursework they intend to take, up to the 21-hour maximum overload.
As a result, a student who can only afford the 12-hour rate will spend at least five years as an undergraduate. Previously, students could take 12 to 21 hours without an additional charge.
In a letter to public university presidents on Nov. 20, 2008, Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning cited looming budget deficits as the primary reason for the tuition increases.
He also introduced a proposed New Business Model for Long-Term Productivity Enhancement to increase student enrollment in online courses.
“Our campuses are making immediate budget adjustments using the standard set of cost reduction steps such as freezing positions and travel, cutting non-salary budget lines and reducing reserve account balances,” Manning wrote in the letter. “However, we need a longer term strategy to bring operations to a new and more productive steady state condition.”
Manning suggested several ideas to rectify the current fiscal situation in the state’s public colleges and universities, such as mandating a certain number of online courses for all students, closing universities for at least one weekday and decreasing the number of full-time professors.
