Georgia’s public universities will soon have new leadership.

The Board of Regents appointed Republican Hank Huckaby the university system's new chancellor on Friday.

After the unanimous vote to name him, Chancellor-Elect Huckaby gave an explanation for the recurrent increases in tuition over the past several years.

He says the university system has two streams of funding—tuition and what is alloted in the state budget

“If those get out of balance and quite frankly because of the economic situation in the past few years they have gotten out of balance, because we’re back to mid 90’s level of state funding, so when that goes way down the only other avenue for us to raise tuition.”

Lawmakers have posed several ideas on how to manage tuition increases. One is to tie them to inflation rates. Huckaby says he is against that.

“One of top priorities when working with the board and working with key legislative leadership to try to prevent that from happening any time soon. We think it’s important in maintaining the board’s flexibility in managing from a policy perspective, not only the academic mission but also the financial structure that underpins that.”

The board recently raised tuition rates about $450 per semester.

Huckaby will officially assume the chancellor’s office in July after current Chancellor Errol Davis retires.

Tags: georgia board of regents, University System of Georgia, higher education, Hank Huckaby, chancellor