By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approved a $389.6 million system-wide budget for fiscal 2010 Friday that for the first time in 24 years will not include a tuition increase at the university’s flagship campus in Fayetteville.

The budget reflects a 3.8 percent increase over current spending, though tuition at the Fayetteville campus will remain at $5,010 for in-state students and $13,888 for students from out of state.  Students there will see a $2 increase in facility fees.

Tuition will increase for students at most of the other two-and four-year schools in the UA system, however, including a 5.2 percent increase for in-state students at Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas, a 4.4 percent rise at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton and a 2.6 percent increase at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

“I want to thank each and every chancellor for tightening their belts,” board chairman Tim Hunt of Paragould said before UA trustees unanimously approved the budget.

After the vote, Chancellor G. David Gearhart said there were several reasons why UA-Fayetteville was able to keep current tuition levels for next year, including higher than expected student enrollment last year, a $1 million transfer from the athletics department and a cost containment program.

Also, some vacant administrative positions will go unfilled, and faculty and staff will not get pay raises, he said.

“The university will be operating within its leanest budget in years through at least next June,” Gearhart said.