AUGUSTA — The Maine Community College System’s board of trustees voted to increase tuition by $2 per credit hour on Wednesday, effective in the fall of 2014.
The tuition raise, which was recommended by system President John Fitzsimmons, increases tuition from $88 dollars per credit hour to $90 dollars a credit, amounting to an increase of $60 a year for a full-time student, according to Helen Pelletier, the system’s director of communications.
Next year, full-time, in-state students will pay $2,700 a year for classes.
“This is a modest increase, but one we wish we did not have to make,” said the chair of MCCS’s board of trustees, Robert Clark, in a prepared statement. “State appropriations have remained flat in recent years, and the colleges have worked hard to live within very tight budgets. But as costs continue to rise, so does the challenge of maintaining a high quality, affordable education.”
On Friday, Northern Maine Community College announced four faculty positions would be cut to help offset a $470,000 budget deficit.
Kennebec Valley Community College cut two faculty positions due to a $435,000 budget shortfall, though one of those individuals moved into an administrative job at the college, according to Pelletier. KVCC is leaving seven vacant administrative positions unfilled.
And Southern Maine Community College has eliminated three programs in part because of a $350,000 budget gap, Pelletier said.
Over 18,000 students are enrolled in Maine’s seven community colleges, and close to 3,000 graduated from the colleges this month, according to the prepared statement announcing the tuition increase.
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