Community Colleges Raise Tuition

$3 Per Credit

HARTFORD — The Board of Trustees of Community-Technical Colleges acted at its meeting on Monday, May 15, to raise tuition by $3 per credit for the next academic year (2000-01) at the state’s 12 community colleges.

A full year at a community college for a student taking 12 or more credits each semester will be $1,886, including tuition and fees, up from $1,814, or a total increase to $72 for a full year or $36 per semester.

This is the first time since 1998 that tuition has increased at the community colleges. For the past two years – 1998-99 and 1999-2000 – tuition has been frozen at 1997-1998 levels. The CTC Board of Trustees acted first in 1997 to recommend tuition freeze at the $1,814 rate after ten years of increases in tuition rates. At that time, the board acted to halt escalating tuition in order to demonstrate its commitment to eliminating barriers for students trying to take advantage of the opportunities offered by higher education. The board’s budget proposals for the following three years have continued the tuition freeze and requested additional funding from the General Assembly to cover the revenue needed to increasing costs without raising tuition.

The CTC board was then faced with the choice of raising tuition or reducing services to students in the upcoming year. The board decided to increase tuition, keeping the increase to the lowest amount needed for inflationary costs not otherwise covered in the budget, including increases in fuel and utilities, allied health instructional costs, building maintenance, security, education and library equipment, and part-time faculty.

The General Assembly, rather than continue the freeze this year, opted to increase the amount of financial aid available for public college students by allocating an additional $4.5 million to the Connecticut Aid for Public College Students Program (CAPS), a fund that is shared by all the public colleges and universities in the state. The community colleges also customarily dedicate 5 percent of tuition revenues each year to financial aid.

Students participating in the New England Regional Program and attending community colleges in Connecticut will see tuition and fees raise from $2,618 to $2,716 as required by agreement with the New England Board of Higher Education that sets rates at 1.5 percent of in-state resident rates.