University of North Texas students’ college bills this fall will be about $60 less than they had been told, if regents approve the decrease today as expected.

University administrators are asking the regents to cut in half a tuition increase they approved in February.

The regents meet today via telephone to vote on the change.

Phil Diebel, UNT’s vice president of finance and business affairs, said the university received more than $2.5 million more in state funding than he expected for the coming year.

In February, the board ap­proved an $8 per credit hour in­crease in tuition by a 5-3 vote, the narrowest margin in several years.

On Friday, the board will consider lowering that by $4 per credit hour, or $60 total for a student taking 15 credit hours.

“We’ve done that one other time in my 26 years here,” Diebel said.

A $1 per student increase to the student union fee, which the board also approved in February, will not change.

So, if the change is approved, tuition and fees for a student taking 15 hours would rise from $3,075.10 in 2006-07, to $3,136.10 for the coming school year.

“It’s going to be less than a 2 percent increase over this year. Less than 2 percent is pretty amazing. That’s not even a cost of living increase,” Diebel said.

He said students have registered for the fall semester but have not paid tuition yet.

So the change will simply mean students will see smaller bills than they would have.

Marjorie Craft, one of three regents who voted against the $8 increase in February, called the proposed decrease “a wonderful thing.”

She said she would continue to urge UNT administrators to keep the increases as low as possible.

“It’s like managing your household budget,” she said. “You have to stop and take stock of what you can do with the money you have.”

C. Dan Smith, a UNT regent who voted for the increase in February, agreed that the decrease is good news.

He hates to approve tuition and fee increases, he said, but it’s been the university’s only option lately.

He said UNT’s increases are low compared with many other universities.

“All of us would like it not to be necessary to increase tuition, but I don’t visualize being able to do that in the future,” Smith said.

MATTHEW ZABEL can be reached at 940-566-6884. His e-mail is mzabel@dentonrc.com

Here is a look at the University of North Texas’ current tuition and fee rate compared with this fall’s tuition and fees.

SOURCE: University of North Texas