A Tennessee Board of Regents committee approved the lowest tuition increase in over a decade today.

Due to a 34-million dollar boost from the state legislature, T-B-R’s budget and finance committee voted to only raise tuition by 4-point-1 percent. That translates to a yearly dollar value ranging from 72-dollars at the technology centers to 172-dollars at the University of Memphis.

Part of the nearly 2-billion dollar Board of Regents system budget is a new fee for green power at Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee Tech. The 16-dollar increase will pay for renewable energy supplies like solar and wind, from the Tennessee Valley Authority and pay for energy saving items on campuses.

Brandon Armstrong just graduated from M-T-S-U. He says in student-led referendums, both campuses overwhelmingly approved the increase.

“This generation’s going to have a lot of energy issues to deal with in the coming years besides global climate change. We’ll have, I mean, East Tennessee, Tennessee is in general one of the worst for air pollution and children’s asthma.”

The green power fee will buy roughly 10-percent of both universities’ energy needs. The only other college in the state to purchase green power, University of Tennessee Knoxville, approved a similar program last year.

The full board is expected to approve the tuition and fee increases tomorrow/today.