A last-minute tuition increase — on top of increases approved earlier this year — will make attending Elizabeth City State University more pricey, this fall.

Tuition hikes were presented Tuesday at all 16 University of North Carolina state universities by UNC system President Erskine Bowles to the Board of Governors. The latest add-on will boost ECSU’s tuition by $414 this year.

By comparison, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill will see a $750 increase, East Carolina a $563 increase, and Fayetteville State a $250 increase.

The hikes were reportedly approved in an effort to offset the impact of budget cuts that were recently imposed by the General Assembly.

The new tuition increases come on top of hikes of up to $200 in 2010-11 that had already been enacted earlier this year, varying by campus.

In his most recent meeting with the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Willie Gilchrist warned that budget cuts would ‘definitely hurt’ ECSU, as well as the entire UNC system.

“We cannot survive with the present budget situation or proposals that are coming out right now. We need help,” Gilchrist said, in early June. “Not just Elizabeth City (State) but the entire UNC (system) needs help.”

Attempts to reach Gilchrist for comment on the latest tuition hike were unsuccessful, Wednesday.

Other tuition hikes, which were sent to the Board of Governors in late December by ECSU’s board of trustees, totaled approximately $344 more than what students paid in the 2009-2010 academic year.

Although ECSU’s latest increase isn’t the largest of the UNC system, it isn’t the smallest either.

“This may be the best of some bad options,” said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the board. “Nobody wants to do this on the backs of students. But the reality is clear.”

The state budget approved two weeks ago includes a $70 million cut in the university system’s budget, which will be spread among the 16 college campuses and the N.C. School of Science and Math, a residential high school.

The budget also allowed campuses to increase tuition by as much as $750 to mitigate the effects of the cuts.

UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C State are the two largest campuses and received the biggest cuts — nearly $20 million each. Bowles gave the two campuses the option of enacting the full $750 tuition increase, and each chose to do so.

University officials say that even with these new increases, the state’s public universities remain a bargain. Tuition at all public universities will remain in the lowest quarter when compared to their public peer institutions nationwide.

The UNC School of the Arts was the only other campus allowed to hit the $750 limit.

NCCU could have increased its rates by as much as $532, but chose only a $435 hike, figuring anything larger would hurt the institution’s ability to recruit good students, Bowles said.

Twenty percent of revenue raised is to be used for financial aid.

The UNC system has cut $575 million in spending and eliminated more than 900 positions in the last three years. Tuition hikes were seen as the way to avoid cutting academics, including instructor layoffs and the eliminating course sections.

While the tuition increases will allow most campuses to completely counter the reduced state funding, UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State must take additional action after each receiving cuts of nearly $20 million.