Fort Madison, IA – It will cost a little more for students to take classes at Southeastern Community College in the fall.
The college's Board of Trustees has voted to boost tuition by $5/credit hour. The increase means that one credit hour for an in-state student would be $120.
Vice President Bill Meck says, earlier in the current fiscal year, the increase was projected to be as high as $10 or more. He says several factors allowed the college to avoid that large of an increase.
says the increase could have been much higher. "We have the stabilization (federal economic stimulus) money that came in for FY2010... and because of some of the other budgetary things we have done as a college over the last 5-6 months," says Meck, "it has put us in a pretty good position to move forward and only increase the tuition by $5 this time.
Meck does not believe a larger increase will be needed for the FY2011. He says the tuition increase should generate about $360,000 for SCC, based on no increase in enrollment.
Meck says the average tuition increase, this summer, for all of Iowa's community colleges has been $6.33. He says that could change as two schools have yet to approve increases.
Meck says the average cost per credit hour, statewide, will be around $130 this fall. He says the lowest in the state would be around $111 while the highest around $151.
SCC's Board of Trustees could approve the college's budget next month.