Trustees vote to increase tuition

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Students attending Northern Maine Community College, or any of the other six institutions in the Maine Community College System, will be seeing a slight increase in tuition this fall.
    At a meeting held June 27 in Fairfield, MCCS trustees voted to increase tuition by 2.5 percent or $2 per credit hour, effective fall 2007.
In approving the increase, the Board stipulated that the revenues generated by the tuition hike be targeted to faculty or staff positions working in direct support of students.
“Maine’s community colleges have grown dramatically in the past four years, but full-time staffing has remained the same,” said Dennis King, chair of the board of trustees. “By keeping this year’s tuition increase to a minimum and dedicating the revenues to direct student support, we aim to ensure that the colleges continue to provide Maine residents with an affordable, high quality education.”
The increase will mean that full-time Maine students will pay an additional $60 in tuition during the next academic year for a total of $2,400. Out-of-state tuition will also increase by $2 to $161 per credit hour, or $4,830.
NMCC President Timothy Crowley said while $2 per credit hour isn’t exorbitant, it’s one more financial burden the students must bear.
“I’m always concerned when we raise tuition that it will put higher education out of the reach of some students,” he said. “I don’t know that this increase will do that, but any time you raise tuition, it’s done with a great deal of concern.
“A $2 per credit hour increase may appear not to be much, but if you put that in with the continuing increases in books and materials, it can be difficult for students,” said Crowley. “You have to weigh that against the challenges we face with our increase in costs for operation, and I think the board has done a very responsible analysis and implemented something that’s reasonable.”
Last year trustees approved a 5.4 percent tuition increase.
Crowley said he didn’t think the increase would be enough to keep students from attending the local institution.
“I don’t anticipate students not coming as a result of this increase,” he said. “Our enrollment information for the fall looks solid, but you never know until students show up, but we don’t anticipate it having a negative impact.”
Calling the legislative support “fair,” Crowley said the Community College system needs to do more to gain additional legislative support in terms of financial assistance.
“It’s not where we need to be to maintain a level tuition,” he said. “We didn’t raise tuition for a significant amount of time … almost eight years. However, for the past three years, without raising tuition, we’d be in a very difficult position.
“We’ve worked very closely with the Aroostook County Delegation to make them aware of our needs, and we appreciate their support,” said Crowley, “but if you look at the system as a whole, we need to do more. We’ll never have enough money, so we have to do what we can to get the full support of the Maine Legislature.”
Also at the board meeting, trustees established room and board rate ranges for the 2007-08 academic year, accepted a number of gifts to Eastern Maine Community College, and elected officers for the coming year.
Dennis King of Freeport, chief executive officer of Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook, will continue as chair of the MCCS Board of Trustees, and Daniel Wathen of Augusta, retired Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and currently of counsel at Pierce Atwood, will continue as vice chair.