Maggie Smith
Copy Editor
Students enrolled for the 2019 fall semester will see an increase in their fees to attend Crowder College. Tuition, as well as room, board and course fees will rise beginning later this year.
In Crowder’s board of trustees meeting for January, a proposal to raise dorm rates by 1.6-2% and meal rates by 3% was announced by Mark Aubuchon, the campus life director. “We make a conscious effort to compare our rates with other schools in the area to make sure we remain competitive,” Aubuchon said. Summer board rates would also be raised by 6.7%.
The following meeting in February passed this proposal, and considered an additional proposal to raise tuition rates. This was mentioned by Dr. Glenn Coltharp, recently elected president of Crowder.
Crowder is currently tenth out of twelve Missouri community colleges when it comes to low tuition, ranking them one of the cheapest schools. With increased tuition in the coming year, the expectation is to still stay close to that low ranking.
“Our goal is to always keep our rates as affordable as possible for students, and we have also compared our rates to other schools in the area,” Dr. Coltharp stated.
These increases will initiate in the 2019 fall semester, the same time the room and board prices rise. Dollar amounts for tuition could rise anywhere from $2 to $8.
These differences are accounted for by the varying types of tuition charges, such as In-District or International.
In addition, fees such as the Safety and Security Fee, Support Fee and Online Course Fee will go up slightly. However, the Flex Class Fee will not change.
The reasoning behind these changes is to accommodate a modest raise for employees and help with the increasing price of their insurance, according to Andy Wood, Chair of the Board of Trustees. Wood also observed that tuition increases were pertinent due to an ever-growing shortage of government funding.
Students, however, are slightly uneasy about affording their future schooling.
“As a student from a low income family who still helps support my family, [I] see this as another affront to my already hectic financial life,” says Pedro Zepeda, an education major at Crowder.
Leave a Reply