Massachusetts Senate president Stanely Rosenberg asks UMass officials to

State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg is urging University of Massachusetts leaders to reconsider an increase in student fees.

Rosenberg said Thursday the UMass system received $531.8 million for the current fiscal year, a $20.6 million increase over the previous year.

The appropriation was, however, much less than the $578 million that the university had requested, and UMass officials are still hoping the Legislature will make up the difference in a supplemental budget bill. He said the university could still meet that goal if more money is included in a supplemental budget.

Rosenberg said the hikes could end up translating into a total increase in tuition and all mandatory fees of about $900 for in-state undergraduate students at UMass Amherst.

An aide to Gov. Charlie Baker said the governor agrees with Rosenberg that every effort should be made to ensure the affordability of public colleges.

“We don’t see a whole lot of room to maneuver right now in terms of reducing fees without… creating hard fiscal circumstances – which is why we’re suggesting the alternate course of fully funding the university and the budget request we put forward”, Connolly said. The UMass board had said that the extra funding would have prevented increases in tuition and fees.

There are 22,000 undergraduates at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

In an August 13 letter to Meehan, Rosenberg said this could jeopardize some students’ futures at the school.

“Whether this fall or next spring, I hope that the trustees will revisit the proposed student charges and provide some relief in light of the increase provided”, Rosenberg wrote, referring to the university’s budget appropriation.

Ipswich Republican Brad Hill believes repealing the tuition hike makes sense because UMass is receiving more funding than they expected.

UMass President Marty Meehan in the WBUR studios in May.

Meehan, who took over as president in July after leading the UMass Lowell campus, came to the State House on July 27 where he met with House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey and Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka to urge an override of $5.2 million in funding for the UMass system vetoed by Baker. Baker had discouraged such a hike, and Education Secretary James Peyser, a member of the UMass board, voted against it.

The new cost of faculty salaries will consume the entire increase in the state appropriation, said Robert Connolly, vice president for communications at UMass.

Starting this year, each campus will be able to retain the tuition collected from students for their budgets rather than ceding that money to the state to be allocated by the Legislature.

Rosenberg said Friday that he wanted to give the university trustees time to consider and discuss his proposal.

Rosenberg was a chief proponent of tuition retention.