State universities and land-grant colleges in the South reported greater tuition and required fee increases than their counterparts in any other region last year. These trends cause debates between those who favor a policy of very low tuition in the public sector and those who see large tuition increases simply as a matter of "catching up" by universities in a number of southern states. The main tuition issue that surfaces is how to regularize tuition adjustments to keep up with the regular increases that generally prevail for other sources of institutional income. This report has two purposes: to provide a selection of facts about trends and current characteristics of tuition practice in public institutions of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states; and address those facts to present a rationale for policies of systematic tuition adjustment. Among the highlights are that: (1) tuition and required fees at public colleges and universities have risen substantially in recent years, but these increases generally have been in the nature of delayed "catch up" actions and have not kept pace with rising per capita personal income; (2) non-resident tuition and fees are generally about three times greater than resident tuition and fees; and (3) graduate tuition and fees in the South, unlike those in the nation, tend to differ relatively little from undergraduate tuition and fees. (Author/LC)