Video: Meredith: Universities Face ‘Chilling Effect’

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — A former college board president says rising tuitions, a lack of state funding and fewer potential students will have a chilling effect on higher education for years to come.

Dr. Tom Meredith says colleges in Mississippi and other Southern states are struggling to find creative ways to generate revenues to pay professors and provide scholarships and facilities without raising tuitions.

The former head of university systems in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi says those and other issues add up to tough decisions regarding everything from program cuts to college mergers.

“States have reduced their funding as a percent of how much money the institutions get, tuitions are going up which is a hardship on an awful lot of young people. Then the demographics as we look across the country, the number of people coming out of high school is going to be declining,” Meredith said.

Meredith spoke Tuesday to the Columbus Rotary Club.