CGCC hikes fees and tuition to fill budget deficit

“The proportion of next year’s deficit not closed through increased revenue must be closed through college reductions, continued use of college reserves or a combination of the two,” said Chief Financial Officer Will Norris in a financial statement presented to the board of education at their regular April meeting.

“It looks like we are starting to bottom out, but we are still not pulling up,” said Norris, noting an ongoing decrease in cash flow and falling student enrollment. “Tuition and fees constitute approximately 35 percent of the annual operating revenue of the college,” Norris added. “They are also the only revenue the college has any control over.”

In the past year, significant cuts were made throughout the college, Norris said. The general consensus now is to focus on revenue, rather than additional cuts, he said. “There are no cuts left anymore, except for instruction and academics,” he explained.

In order to balance the budget, Norris proposed a combination of tuition and fee increases, including a controversial “small class premium” of $150 that would be applied to those taking a class if a scheduled class failed to reach a 12 student threshold.

“We are running a significant number of classes with under 12 students enrolled,” Norris explained. “That has to be paid for eventually, and we just don’t have the money for it.”

Small class sizes result in the cost of the class outstripping the revenue coming from those classes.

If only eight to 12 students enroll for a class, that class will be cancelled.

“Somebody will have to pay for those classes,” Norris explained. “Either everyone pays, or those attending the (small) classes pay.”

Last year, classes with fewer than eight students were cancelled, with the exception of those students needed to graduate from a CGCC program. As a result, students working on transfer programs were sometimes forced to wait for as long as a year to get a class they needed.

The small class premium was generally supported by students surveyed, although the majority of those surveyed had never had a class cancelled (68 percent) and also supported a general tuition and fee increase (61 percent).

Board Member Ernie Keller noted that if a cancelled class was going to “keep you from graduating, compared to waiting, $150 isn’t very much.”

Board member Charlotte Cobb noted that the small class premium was confusing for students to plan for. “We need to be simple, concise and sustainable,” she said. “I would rather we spread the cost out, somehow.”

Cobb suggested increasing tuition, and adding an admission fee to create a financial cushion that could be used to reduce class cancelations.

The board agreed, adopting the $6 tuition increase and $25 admission fee. Other increases and additions in fees included a $4.50 increase in College Now fees, a new $1 increase in general fees for mental health services, a $45 increase in Moodle (online class provider) fees, a $9 per credit hour increase in writing class fees, a new $5 student ID card fee, a $75 increase in nursing program fees, a $55 increase in medical assisting program fees, a $100 increase in each of two EMT course fees, a $150 and $60 increase in two nursing lab fees, a $10 increase in first aid lab fee, a $50 increase in a welding course fee, a $100 increase in RET course fees, a $200 increase in computer science course fees, a $100 increase in business administration course fees and a $100 increase in Japanese language course fees.