University President Michael Adams said Thursday he would be opposed to any HOPE scholarship proposal that freezes tuition rates and called such a move “short-sighted.”

Adams’ comments came a day after Georgia Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor told a group of University students he did not support pending legislation that would eliminate HOPE payments for books and fees.

Instead, Taylor said he backs a proposal to freeze college tuition rates for the next three years.

“It’s probably in the best interest of the students that we reasonably increase tuition if needed,” Adams told reporters at a media briefing held after his Cabinet meeting Thursday morning.

The president said a plan to freeze tuition rates was “short-sighted” and the University would not be able to retain its best faculty members if such a proposal were passed.

“It costs more to educate students at a place like the University of Georgia,” he said.

Last year, the Board of Regents — which controls the tuition rates for the state’s 34 public universities — raised tuition rates at the University by 15 percent to offset decreased funding from the state legislature.

“The budget is on everyone’s mind,” Adams said. “It remains the biggest challenge facing this university.”

Adams said he will be speaking before the state senate’s higher education committee next Thursday to address budget concerns at the University — which has lost more than $50 million in state funding the last two and a half years.

Adams also said the University has not laid off any faculty or staff due to the cuts — though several hundred positions remain unfilled — and that the administration will continue to take a conservative approach in its hiring.

The University Council, another of the University’s governing bodies, met Thursday and discussed other issues facing the faculty and administration.

The council unanimously passed a request to allow Executive Committee Chair-man Scott Weinberg to contact University Foundation officials to discuss more faculty representation on the foundation’s board.

Currently, the University is represented on the board by one faculty member and two administrators.

The council wants three voting members on the board — the same representation it has on both the University Research Foundation and the Athletic Association boards.

Weinberg said he had not spoken with any members of the foundation since the request was approved by the council’s executive committee two weeks ago, but he would do so soon.

“I will make contact with them tomorrow in one form or another,” he said.

Adams said he supported the council’s motion, but said he would leave decisions about faculty representation on the board to foundation leadership.

“I think there should be faculty representation in that group and any group,” Adams said. “I think it’s healthy.”

He said faculty members also are donors to the University and thus have a stake in the foundation’s work.

Members of the foundation’s executive committee could not be reached for comment as of press time.

During the morning’s briefing, the president defended the purchase of a sparingly-used Buckhead townhouse that the University Found-ation recently put up for sale at $160,000 less than its purchasing price.

He said the University tried to reach its goal of fundraising in Atlanta through two ventures, and while the townhouse failed, the Atlanta Alumni Center — located in the Atlanta Financial Center — has been a success.

“One of them worked stupendously well, and one of them did not get the use we anticipated,” Adams said.

Adams also touched on an ongoing investigation into how hackers broke into a University server that contained students’ personal information.

“There’s still much criminal investigation to be done,” he said. “We’ll continue to take these matters very seriously.”

Adams added that a security consultant hired by the University has verified the school’s servers are secure.