Montgomery College approves tuition raise

The Montgomery College Board of Trustees voted to raise tuition for next year as a result of cuts to its funding from County Executive Isiah Leggett's proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011, said Montgomery College director of media relations Elizabeth Homan. The college will receive about $15 million less than expected, forcing officials to raise tuition and make spending cuts, she said.

According to Homan, the tuition will raise $5, $10 and $15 per credit hour for county, state and out-of-state students respectively. In a February meeting, the Board requested $108.1 million for next year's budget from the county, $1.6 million more than what the college receives from the county for this year's budget.

In addition to requesting more money, the board also raised tuition by $3, $6 and $9 in order to provide the increasing number of students with more professors and programs. However, the Board increased the tuition raise after the county executive recommended only $93.6 million for Montgomery College, she said.

According to Montgomery College Interim President Hercules Pinkney, the $15 million deficit is a significant portion of the budget; it takes that much money to operate the Germantown campus, one of the three Montgomery College campuses, he said. "We are not closing our Germantown Campus, but we are facing the possibility of operating three campuses with funding for only two when student enrollment is at a record high," Pinkney said.

Montgomery College chief budget officer Donna Diamond said the tuition raise is expected to bring in only $3.6 million to the operating budget, meaning that the college has to cut another $11.4 million from other areas. In addition to increasing tuition fees, said Pinkney, the college has asked every department to reduce their budgets. "In some areas, these reductions will lead to shortened office hours, fewer staff working during peak registration times, or fewer faculty members available for tutoring or advising," he said. Furthermore, the college is making plans to furlough employees.

The budget cuts come at an especially hard time. Due to an increase in student enrollment, the college must offer more professors and staff, Homan said. When the Board originally made its budget request, she said, it asked for a 2.9 percent increase from this year's budget due to this expected rise in enrollment. This year, the college had its highest credit enrollment in history, 400 students shy of the undergraduate class at the University of Maryland.

Next year, the college population is expected to increase by nine percent, Homan said. The Board also considered that money would be needed to operate and maintain the new science center on the Rockville campus that will open next year, Homan said. However, next year's budget will be lower than it is currently, which will make it hard to handle additional students, she said.

Diamond is especially concerned about financial aid funds. In the past years, Montgomery College has been rejecting more students due to a lack of sufficient financial aid funds. According to Pinkney, 2,000 students did not enroll at Montgomery College last fall because they did not receive financial aid from the college. Even though college officials are trying their best to not cut any financial aid money, Diamond said it is a possibility if cuts from other areas cannot be made. If students cannot attend one of the most affordable schools in Maryland due to lack of financial aid funds, it would be hard for them to find another source of higher education, Diamond said. "They might not have anywhere to go; they might fall through the cracks," she said.

The influx of students is a result of the current economic climate, said Homan. Even though the tuition is rising, she said that Montgomery College is a relatively affordable college. "The college realizes that the increase in tuition will impact its students but we also realize that in these economic times, Montgomery College is still the most affordable option for students in Montgomery County," she said.