Addressing concerns about a possible tuition increase and future budget cuts, Stephen Hulbert, University president, admitted that there have been no decisions made, but there are concerns about Nicholls’ future. “I’m waiting for guidance,” Hulbert said. Before Hulbert can make a decision on how to implement a tuition increase, the University of Louisiana System must write an agreement to be approved by the Board of Regents and a legislative oversight committee. A draft of that agreement is currently being worked on, Hulbert said. “Until that occurs, I don’t think we are in a position to make that decision.” While other universities, such as Southern University, have already announced their decisions to implement a tuition increase, Hulbert believes this is just a preemptive decision of the universities, but he prefers to wait until he receives official word from the state. “We’ll probably have a month to six weeks as we build the budget for next year until we truly know what’s going on,” Hulbert said. Hulbert believes the reason for these budget cuts is because the state is placing higher education as the cause of wasted money in the state. “Higher education and health are unprotected in the state budget, so the cuts have to come from health and higher ed.,” Hulbert said. The focus is put on higher education as the problem to justify taking cuts from universities. However, though there is the possible tuition increase slotted for the 2010-11 school year, at most, it is a $200 increase that Hulbert feels is not enough to deter students from registering at Nicholls. “The oil spill disaster is probably more of a concern at this moment,” Hulbert said. “Students may be greatly affected by it and may be unable to return because of financial concerns caused by this crisis.” While there may be a small loss of students this fall, Hulbert is more concerned about the 2011-12 year, when 7.3 million in federal stimulus dollars will disappear from Nicholls” budget. “We’ve been very cautious with our spending,” Hulbert said, “but our relationship with the state is making things very difficult. We can’t do what we are funded to do with the amount of funds we are receiving now.” Hulbert does not think Nicholls will be able to handle the loss of the stimulus dollars. One option besides the tuition increase to help with the loss would be to get rid of the cap on class hours. “You receive a third of your classes for free, essentially,” Hulbert said. “Anything over 12 hours, you do not currently pay for. That would give us about $3 million more that we are not currently getting.” While students may not like this option, Hulbert said, we are the only state other than North Carolina that does not make students pay for all of their hours. “At some point in time,” Hulbert said, “if we are to survive, students have to pay their fair share for the value they are getting.” Hulbert also said that if the state were to build a partnership with higher education and understand the dilemma universities are being put in, Nicholls and other universities would be able to work with the state in regards to these budget cuts. But as it is, the universities are receiving very little support from the state. “They are expecting us to show improvement without the funds to do what we are supposed to do,” Hulbert said. However, Hulbert said he was hopeful and suspects the quality of students will actually improve, even if the quantity will decrease. “You want a higher quality anyway,” Hulbert said, “because then the quality of classes will improve as well.” But in the interim, Hulbert said he will do everything he can to help students through the economical crisis and oil spill disaster.