Board approves $2 tuition hike for fall 2004
by Rawly Bransom
editor-in-chief

The TCC Board of Trustees voted unanimously last week to change the tuition system from a traditional tuition plus fee system to a new tuition only system, effectively raising tuition approximately $2 per semester hour.

That is the bad news.

The good news is that students now will have most fees factored into their cost of tuition.

TCC sets its tuition system for a three-year standard with the ability to make only small changes to it.

This year was the last half of that three-year mark, so a committee of faculty, staff and students studied tuition and recommended changes.

Rudy Gonzales, vice-chancellor of financial services, presented the committee’s recommendations to the board.

He said the committee added up all the fees such as processing/evaluating, facilities usage, student service and labs for every student and per-semester hour, and it raised tuition from $31 per semester hour to $44 dollars per semester hour.

Dr. Bill Lace, executive assistant to the chancellor, said the combined fee would help many students.

“ They [students not taking labs] would pay more. However, a student who is a science major, a nursing major or a computer science major will end up paying less. It will all balance in the end,” he said.

Gonzales said seven other schools such as Austin Community College, Coastal Bend, Dallas County College, El Paso, Midland, South Texas and Victoria have combined fees and tuitions.

San Jacinto and Temple also are considering switching to the new tuition system.

The committee’s main concern was making the system easier and more convenient for students to use, Gonzales said.

“ Many times a student gets help from a parent or grandparent who simply writes a check for the amount of tuition,” he said.

Often a student comes to TCC and is short money because he did not factor in a fee or two, Gonzales said.

“ Then the student has to scramble to borrow money from a friend or go back to his parents and borrow more money,” he said.

Many of these students cannot come up with the additional money quickly enough and are dropped from the system, forcing them to start the registration process all over.

Another reason for the switch is to help TCC’s computer network, Colleague.

Gonzales said the switch would drop the number of major processes Colleague must compute for financial aid from five to one.

“ Many students have been stuck on Colleague for an hour or more and simply watched it do nothing. This should not only help them out but help move lines at the school as well,” he said.

Combining tuition and fees would also raise the pool for grants TCC could distribute.

Gonzales said TCC must allocate 6 percent of its tuition to the Texas Public Education Grant for need-based students at TCC.

“ I think it is safe to say that the changes to tuition would dramatically increase the TPEG set aside for need-based grants,” Lace said.

Under the old system, fees were separate, but with fees combined into tuition only, the money allocated to this fund would rise significantly.

Finally, Gonzales said that the savings from office supplies such as paper, printer toner, paper clips and staples would make a significant savings to TCC.

Some fees still must be paid, however. These include returned check fees, promissory note fees, liability insurance for some courses, private music lessons and foreign student processing and evaluating fees.

Once the process of combining fees and tuition was completed, the committee also recommended a $2 raise for the cost of tuition and fees up to $46 per semester hour.

Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, chancellor, said, “The increase is made necessary by the continuing rise of education and the continuing decline in our level of state support.”

Even with this increase, de la Garza said, TCC is still conservatively priced compared to many other community colleges.

“ We will continue being the first and best college-entrance option for our citizens and, thus, want to keep the opportunity for higher education as affordable as possible,” he said.

A major reason for the increase in tuition is the steady drop in state appropriations to community colleges over the past 20 years.

In the 1984-85 school year, state money accounted for 70 percent of TCC’s budget. During the last school year, however, state appropriations counted for only 22 percent of TCC’s budget.

In other business, the board voted to give the chancellor the ability to refund a portion of TCC’s bonds when the level of profit would be at 1.95 percent.

The idea for this recommendation came last month when the interest rate on bonds dropped significantly. If TCC had been able to trade in its bonds within a few days of the drop, the school could have made a significant amount of money.

By the time the board met, the market was back up, so no moves could be made.

Lace said that when TCC sold the bonds, interest rates were much higher. Since interest rates are much lower, TCC can save money, Lace said.

Since TCC is one of two colleges in the nation with the highest debtor rating possible, the change-over rate for the bonds can be done in less than a week, saving TCC hundreds of thousand of dollars.

“ It sounds complicated, but it is just like refinancing a house,” Lace said.

The board also voted to charge tuition for high school students who are enrolled for dual credit.

Dual credit refers to high school students enrolled in a college course for which they receive high school and college credits.

De la Garza said he sent letters in September to area superintendents with schools using the dual credit courses.

At the time of the board meeting, de la Garza said he had not heard from any of the schools.

By this week, however, Lace reported a few schools have responded with basic questions concerning fall registration and the reason for the charge.

To help some students who might not be able to take the dual-credit courses because of cost, TCC will set aside grant money for dual-credit tuition for approximately 100 students a year.

The board also approved sites and election judges for the upcoming May 15 election.

The election will be for District 4, covering communities in north Tarrant County.

The current board member, Robert McGee, will run against Jack Lewis of Haltom City.

De la Garza said Elzie Odom, former mayor of Arlington, would serve as keynote speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony.

Odom was recently honored by a $31,000 donation to the TCC Foundation, from restaurant owner Chris Carroll, to create the Elzie Odom Scholarship.

“ The scholarship will provide a way to honor Mr. Odom and some deserving students,” Lace said.

Last Updated: 4/21/2004
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