After two years of budget woes, administrators are saying that the university is emerging from the budget crisis, and as a result students might soon have an easier time getting the classes they need.

This year the university's budget increased by $44.9 million with $20.1 million of that increase coming from last year's record-setting $1,000 tuition hike, said Dick Roberts, budget director.

To help students out administrators have decided to hire new faculty with $4 million of the revenue generated by last year's tuition increase, said Roberts.

The faculty hires are not because of a hiring freeze that was lifted on Wednesday, said Beth Mitchneck, interim vice provost. The end of the hiring freeze only affected staff and appointed personnel hires.

She said the hope is that students will have a greater selection of classes in the near future.

The hiring of new faculty and the lifting of the freeze send a clear signal that the university is emerging from the budget crisis, Mitchneck said.

"We are in the process of achieving greater stability," she said. "This signals good news."

In recent years, students have struggled to get the classes they need because budget cuts from the legislature forced departments to cancel classes.

"I checked on the Internet every day over the summer to see if someone else dropped the classes I needed," said Adam Carroll, a bio-systems engineering sophomore.

This was typical for incoming freshmen at last year's orientation, Roberts said.

He said that last year incoming freshmen were not able to get a full load of classes during orientation, but that this year most freshmen at orientation were able to sign up for a full load because of an increased number of graduate teaching assistants.

"They already have (seen the benefits of a tuition increase)," Roberts said. But "they may not know it."

He said more lower division advisers were also hired in a number of colleges, including the Social and Behavioral Sciences College. Many students have struggled to get into the general education classes taught by this college.

"Hopefully they're seeing a university allowing them to continue on their degree path," Roberts said.

Mark Zupan, dean of the Eller College of Business and Public Administration, said he hopes that over time, students would see more options and smaller class sizes.

He said his college has already had a net increase of five faculty members this year. This is the first time in 15 years there has been a net increase in faculty.

He said the faculty was paid for with the $500 fee the college now charges.

Zupan said he will focus hires in core discipline areas, including marketing and finance, adding that the new faculty would increase the prestige of their degrees over time.

"When you draw a more robust faculty, your peers notice," he said.

Of the $20.1 million generated by last year's university-wide tuition hike, $14.1 million of that revenue went to financial aid ÷ with $7.3 million going to need-based aid, $4.2 million going to merit-based aid, and $2.6 million going to graduate aid.

$8.1 million of the $44.9 budget increase came from the state to cover a 15 percent increase in healthcare costs.

In addition, over $10 million came in from House Bill 2529 and Proposition 301 sales tax funding to pay for the debt service on new buildings, which include the architecture expansion and the biomedical buildings.

This money can only pay for these buildings and cannot be spent elsewhere, Roberts said.

The money isn't exchangeable and it is earmarked before it gets to the university, he added.

Nate Baker, a civil engineering sophomore, said that the news about the new faculty hires is "pretty awesome."

Baker was unhappy with his previous class selections and said, "I always get the crap classes."