BOND CAN’T PAY OUR BILLS
BOARD DISCUSSES RAISING TUITION $3 PER CREDIT HOUR
BY MATT ROWNING
The college wants to raise your tuition.
Again.
The Clackam as Com m unity College
board had its first hearing to raise the
price of student tuition on Wednesday
Jan. 10.
The proposal, if passed, would raise
tuition $3 per credit hour beginning this
summer. The final vote w ill take place
sometime in March.
The proposal was led by the college’s
vice president of college services, Jim
Huckestein. Huckestein explained, in
an interview, the challenges facing the
college, and the reason for the proposed
tuition increase.
“ Right now the biggest issue in the
future is what’s happening with the Public
Employee’s Retirement System and the
fact that the Supreme Court overturned
some reforms that the [state] legislature
put into place,” he said.
Huckestein was referring to the Oregon
Supreme Court’s decision in Moro v. State
of Oregon that restored cut PERS benefits
to 120,000 retirees. The 2013 Oregon
legislature had cut b en efits to these
retirees, and the state was m et w ith a
lawsuit the following year. Moro saw these
cuts repealed to the tune of $4 billion.
“ Because of that, our PERS rates are
going to be going up substantially,” said
Huckestein.
For the college, the effect of this will be
first felt in 2017, then again in 2021. As
Huckestein explained, though, the rate
increase is so large they had to put it in
intervals.
“ W hat I w as tellin g the board w as
if w e w ere driving a car ... and w e’ re
on the straight stretch right now, no
im pedim ents in our way, everything’ s
fine, but w e do know that th ere’ s a
couple of curves down the road where
w e’re gonna have to slow down,” said
Huckestein. “We’re either gonna have to
raise additional resources or make some
cuts in order to get our revenues and
expenditures back in balance.”
The college raised tuition last year by
$3. In fact, the college has raised tuition
11 times since 2002, when tuition was $41.
If the most recent proposal passes, the
cost of one credit will go from $87 to $90,
not including books or fees.
The average four-credit class, then, will
c o s t$360.
“ So, we can either tap on the breaks
now and slow down, or in this case start
raising revenue in very small increments
now and the passengers in this car won’t
notice it too m uch,” Huckestein said. “ If
we wait too long to make these changes,
w e’ll see something that the passengers
will notice.”
Even with a $3 a year tuition increase
over the next three years, the long term
trend is that w e’re really not closing this
gap. It would take about $7 a year tuition
increases to have us break even.
“ In the current timeframe we actually
have more revenue than expenditures.”
In the long term though, this is not the
case.
“ The notion is, even though it’ s not
super critical we increase tuition now, our
revenues and expenditures are somewhat
balanced, the long term projection is that
we have a really big increase in expenses
to step up to. A portion of that expense
that w e’re gonna need to step up to is
the student’s share, so that’s why w e’re
putting in this three dollars per credit
in, to make it as small as possible,” said
Huckestein.
Huckestein explained that putting it off
didn’t work either. If the college waited
two years and then raised tuition $5 each
year for the next three, the model didn’t
turn out the same. “ We have a holistic
look at tuition when we decide to increase
it.”
H u c k e s t e in
e x p la in e d
o th e r
consideration s. T h ere’ s the m edian
fa m ily incom e in our d istrict as a
representation o f w hat students can
afford. Another is how we stack up next
to our peer community colleges: Portland
Community, Mt. Hood, Chemeketa and
the like. We are the cheapest of our make
“We have a little bit of leeway to increase
tuition and still be very near the botton
of our comparators.”
Where does the $90 million bond pla?
into this? It would stand to reason tha
the college has millions of dollars lyinj
around to help fund students education
Huckestein explained the fallacy here.
“ There’ s a bright line between bon<
funds, which are for capital construction
and operating dollars, which are for all thi
other things we do: pay the instructors
do the heat, light, all that kind of stuff,’
said Huckestein.
“ None o f the bond dollars are fo
operating, and so w e can only spent
them on long lived assets like building
or equipment,” said Huckestein.
There are three sources of revenue fo
operating as a state community college
property taxes, state funding and tuition
Shortly put, the bond can’t pay our bills
The vote hasn’t happened yet though
ASG President Brent Finkbeiner could set
the vote going either way. “ Right now it’
undetermined, because the board seem
split,” said Finkbeiner. He encourage
students to come and speak their voici
at the next board meeting on Wednesday
March 9 at 5 p.m.
graphic by Victoria Tinke
dackamas Print FEBRUARY 17.2016t hedackamasprin tcom