By Neil Vickers
Associate Vice President of Finance and Budget

At the May 2 meeting, the Board of Trustees adopted tuition and fee rates for the fall 2011 semester. In the budget studies leading up to this meeting, the board requested and received several options on how to respond to significant state reductions.

One of the options presented, and eventually adopted, was the creation of a new course fee, which was set at $50 per course.

The purpose of the course fee is to better align student cost with direct instructional cost. Student tuition is calculated on credit hours, however instructional costs are driven by contact hours or lecture equivalent hours (LEH).

For example, with a typical, 3-credit history course the student pays for 3 credit hours of tuition, and the college provides 3 hours for instruction. Therefore, the student charges are aligned with the instructional costs.

However, with an Organic Chemistry course (including lab) the student pays for 4 credit hours, the college provides 6 hours of instruction, and the faculty is paid for 5.25 LEH. Therefore, the college paid out 1.25 hours that the student did not have to pay in the tuition calculation.

The course fee is designed to offset this differential. Of course, in this scenario there are also the costs of equipping and staffing the lab.

Obviously, any course with a lab would trigger this scenario. To prevent double charging of lab courses, the previous lab fee was eliminated and replaced by the course fee.

However, the course fee did not only replace lab fees. It also applies to any other course in which there is a disconnect between tuition billed and instruction received. This includes courses with labs that did not have lab fees in the past. It also includes courses in Developmental Education disciplines that contain an additional hour of lecture. While this additional lecture hour is not classified as a lab, it affects costs the same as a lab. Therefore, the course fee is applied.

The course fee is one of several measures taken by the college to offset the significant reduction in state funding. Everyone at the college wants to keep tuition and fees as low as possible. After all, affordability is mentioned in the first sentence of our mission statement.

However, the magnitude of the state reductions in funding left no choice but to increase tuition and fees. The alternative was a significant reduction in service levels, which the board felt was not in the best interest of the students or the community.