Promise not kept by district; tuition increase approved

Kathryn Beck

   As of March 26, the cost of tuition for students attending any of the ten Maricopa Community Colleges starting in the fall 2013 semester.

            The approved increase is the second tuition hike in the past three years.

After the first increase, a verbal promise was made two year ago indicating  that tuition hikes would not take place for another five years or so providing that new programs would stay the same.

“It was a political move on their part and there have been tuition increases ten out of the last thirteen years,” said Ray Arecco, Executive Vice President of ASMCC.

At the governing board meeting on March 26, the only student group there was ASMCC and President Andrew Kuhn who spoke about how they felt about raising tuition yet again.

Doyle Burke, governing board president of MCCD, said that the decisions about whether to increase tuition or not depends on the yearly budget.

“Every year the district administration puts together a budget and the budget for 2013-2014 will depend on the support from the new programs,” said Burke.

The tuition hike passed however, with a 4-1 vote with board member Dana Saar voting against the proposed increase.

With the five dollar increase, students will pay $81 per credit hour. The last two hikes were also a five dollar raise on the pervious tuition costs.

According to Arecco, the student senate supported the last proposed tuition increase back in 2010-2011 with the notation that the rates would remain for the next five years.

“Two years ago we supported the increase and we felt that the services would remain the same for five years under the increase,” said Arecco.

Burke also cited that the district has lost millions of dollars in funding which was one of a few reasons to raise tuition costs.

“In the last few years, the district has lost about $60 million from the state. Currently, only one percent of our funding now comes from the state,” said Burke.

Both Arecco and VP of Fiscal Affairs, Michael Brophy said that the student senate has not been come to decision about the increase.

“This year we were not made aware of the presentation by Gaye Murphy in time and the student senate did not get an opportunity to make a more informed decision,” said Arecco.

 “While we are not in favor of the tuition increase we are in favor of increasing property taxes”.

Next month, the governing board will vote on an increase on property tax.

While the promise was not made in writing, Burke said that it is unknown if there will be any more tuition increases in the near future.

“We don’t know yet. It really is on a year to year basis,” Burke said. 

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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