UCC approved not a $3 tuition increase as previously forecast for next year but a $4 per credit tuition increase with a $3 per credit instructional fee increase.
Tuition for the 2019-2020 school year will be $97 per credit. Tuition has been on the rise since 2009 when it was $38 per credit.
Online course and student resources fees were proposed to go up $6 in total additionally, but those fees were not passed. The instructional fee increase is intended to cover cost of labs and lecture/labs.
Out of state tuition rates will be $112 while international students will pay $209. Students who have lived in Oregon for 12 consecutive months are considered in-state residents for tuition. Students from Washington, Idaho, Nevada and California also get in-state tuition.
The college reduced expenses by $500,000 by cutting some materials and services accounts. UCC is also not hiring to fill some vacancies.
The college had already made cuts of nearly $2.4 million, about 4.6 percent of the general fund budget, according to reports made to the UCC board March 13.
Part of the reason for the tuition increase was to balance the budget. Without the increase, UCC would have had a higher deficit than forecast.
Even if the state allocates the $590 million for Oregon’s community colleges that UCC based its next budget on, they still would have been in the hole without the tuition increase: approximately $953,000 the first year and $1,339,718 the second year.
The average community college tuition for all Oregon public community colleges is $4,698 with UCC at $5,001. The median tuition is $4,524.
The college is still facing challenges because they must make many budgetary decisions long before they know how much the state will allocate to them.