LOGAN – Utah State University President Stan Albrecht says students should expect at least a 5 percent tuition increase in the future.”Yes, there will be tuition increases,” Albrecht told journalism students at a press conference Wednesday. “Will they be like they have been? Probably not.”He said he is going to do everything he can to keep tuition down, but that Tier 1 tuition could increase anywhere from 0 to 7 percent. “I hope we’ll be closer to 0 percent,” Albrecht said.Albrecht said the State Legislature created the two-tier tuition structure several years ago. Tier I tuition is set by the Board of Regents and Tier II is set by the individual campuses. He said the Tier II amount at USU is determined in consultation with the students.”Tier I tuition, imposed by the State Board of Regents, is probably going to be 5 percent this year,” Albrecht said. “That’s not set, it won’t be set until March.”USU’s president said he is going to do everything he can to minimize Tier II increases, which have varied from 2-9 percent in past years. He said he is going to the Board of Trustees next month and he will ask them to approve a range that would go from 0-2 percent.Albrecht also addressed student questions about the Legislature, meeting currently in Salt Lake City.”If you look at the last five or six years at the outcome of the legislative session. Utah State has always done better than any other college or university in the state,” he said.Albrecht said USU’s regional campuses around the state give the university a large presence at the legislature which other universities don’t have. He said the presence at the legislature is why USU does so well compared to other universities. Still, getting the legislature to promote higher education is a struggle, Albrecht said.”It’s a constant battle to get a legislature to promote higher education,” Albrecht said.Albrecht said some legislators will say schools have the ability to raise tuition so they don’t need funding from the state. Albrecht said USU’s funding from the state is currently about 25 percent of the the schools funds, the rest of our funding comes from sources such as research grants and contracts.During this year’s legislative session a bill which would have removed tenure from all universities except USU and University of Utah was once again shot down by the House Education Committee.”It won’t come back again next year,” Albrecht said. The bill is losing support every year, he said. This year the bill was stopped by a 10-4 vote.The bill was misdirected, Albrecht said. He said the process of obtaining tenure is very difficult to go through, and a lot of people don’t make tenure because they are weeded out due to nonperformance. After faculty obtain tenure they still have to work, Albrecht said.”Basically what they’re saying is ‘well, once one gets tenure it’s guaranteed employment for life and so people get lazy and they quit doing a good job,’” Albrecht said.

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