By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Dawson Community College Board of Trustees unanimously voted to increase tuition for both in-state and out-of-state students at Monday night’s board meeting.
Based on a recommendation by the board’s Finance Committee and college administrators, the board voted to raise tuition rates by 5 percent for in-district, in-state and students from Western University Exchange states and by 2 percent for non-WUE out-of-state, Canadian and international students.
The board had considered raising tuition rates back in March, when they were presented with a proposal to raise tuition by 3 percent, but had decided to wait until getting a better idea of where the college’s finances would stand once the Montana Legislature wrapped up its work.
With the legislative session winding down and the state budget bill sitting on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature, the college’s state funding for the next two years appears to be locked in, barring a veto of the budget bill. All told, the college is looking at about $400,000 less per year from the state over the next biennium.
“It doesn’t look like we’re any better or any worse off than when we started,” noted DCC President Scott Mickelsen.
College administrators and board members noted, however, that no amount of tuition increase can make up the looming shortfall in state funding.
Board Chairman Chad Knudson did ask Vice President of Administration Kathleen Zander whether or not she had calculated how much more money the tuition increases would bring the college. Zander said that she had not, explaining it would be difficult to make such a projection because it would depend on where the next crop of students to enroll at the college came from.
“It’s hard for me to project what any increase will be, because it changes based on the dynamic of the make-up of our student body,” Zander said.
Knudson added that it would be nice if the college and especially the students felt like they were getting something from the increased tuition, like another full-time faculty member. Zander and Mickelsen said that possibility has been internally discussed, with Zander adding that the tuition increase could possibly raise enough to almost cover the salary and benefits of another full-time faculty member.
As for how the tuition hike might impact the college, Vice Chairman Bob Stanhope, a member of the Finance Committee, said he felt the increases are a “fair figure” and are not so steep that they should drive off potential students, further noting that DCC is not alone amongst colleges and universities around not only the state but the nation faced with having to raise tuition to help make up for declining state funding support.
“We think this is manageable for everybody ... and we think it’s a good faith effort all around,” Stanhope said. “Any tuition increase kind of puts a bind on our recruiters, but I think the reality out there is all the schools are in the same boat.”
In another action related to the tuition increases, the DCC Board also raised the school’s “tuition cap” from 15 credit hours to 18 credit hours. Previously, students only paid tuition for up to 15 credit hours and did not pay any additional tuition for any credit hours above that.
“We have quite a few students who are taking 15 to 18 credits and are not paying anything additional for it,” Zander said.
Trustees entered a brief discussion, with some concerns raised that those students might simply drop a course to stay under 15 credit hours so they did not have to pay additional tuition, which in turn could cost the college funding from the state, as the number of credit hours is used to determine the number of Full Time Equivalent students enrolled at the college for the purposes of calculating state funding.
However, the trustees ultimately determined that seemed unlikely, noting that many of the school’s students exceed 15 credit hours every semester and often have to do so in order to finish their degrees or certificate programs.
“Anecdotally, I would say just about every student I’ve encountered on this campus over the years is taking in excess of 15 credits,” Knudson said.
Stanhope added that if the college does see a major drop-off in the number of students taking more than 15 hours in a manner that does effect its FTE count, they can always go back to the way it has been.
“If we look down the road here two years, three years, and see that maybe it wasn’t the best thing, we’ll change course,” Stanhope said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.