"But, during all the celebrating, Higher Education Commissioner Tom Meredith dropped a bombshell, saying that the appropriation "won't be enough," and that there "will be some sort of tuition increase" to offset higher utility costs.

State lawmakers were stunned. They added money for higher education so "that we didn't pass along a tuition increase to parents and students," said state Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, a member of the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee."