Oklahoma regents request budget increase of $27.5m.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- spite plunging state revenues, the Oklahoma State Regents have asked the state Legislature for a $27.5 million increase over last year's budget and another $35.8 million to make up for this year's budget cuts.

The nine-member governing body of the state's 25 public colleges and universities unanimously approved a budget request of nearly $1.1 billion for the 2011 fiscal year that begins July 1. The Oklahoma Legislature will write the budget for the next fiscal year after it convenes in February.

"We need more students and more college degrees for a stronger, more competitive Oklahoma," Regents Chairman William Stuart Price said. "Now is not the …