The Colorado State University System Board of Governors is beginning to develop a plan for the next fiscal year’s budget to be approved in May.

This process includes creating models for budgets around various tuition increases — in Thursday’s meeting in the Lory Student Center, models were discussed for three, four and five percent undergraduate tuition increases.

“We can essentially pick any one of these options and fine-tune them and, probably at the December or the February board meeting, we would bring back to you that next version of this essentially balanced budget,” CSU President Tony Frank said during the Audit and Finance Committee Session Thursday morning. “This is a pretty key time, not that (it’s set) in stone.”

Frank said although the difference between a three, four or five percent tuition increase would not dramatically change what students will pay from year to year, those increases may have a significant impact on upcoming projects as well as what the University can provide, including “salaries, personnel and the quality of the institution.”

“The things we would be able to invest in with that, it makes some sense,” Frank said.

Vice President of University Operations Lynn Johnson noted during her presentation that it is difficult to even project what next year’s budget and tuition increases will look like without knowing how much funding CSU will receive from the state. 

“The other line item in this schedule that is completely unknown at this point in time is state funding,” Johnson said. “The balancing between what we do with out tuition is clearly dependent on what the state is doing with out funding.”

Collegian News Editor Ellie Mulder can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @lemarie.