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Eastern Gateway trustees approve tuition increase
By HAROLD GWIN
CANFIELD
A $3-per-credit hour tuition increase and a projected 5 percent jump in fall enrollment will help balance the 2010-11 budget approved by the Eastern Gateway Community College Board of Trustees.
The $17.7 million spending plan, effective July 1, is Eastern Gateway’s first full-year budget. The community college only began full-time operations last fall.
The trustees had approved the $3 tuition increase in May, but didn’t act on the budget until Wednesday. Students will now pay a total of $99 per credit hour.
Jefferson Community College, Eastern Gateway’s predecessor, had kept tuition at $96 for the last three years.
Eastern Gateway primarily serves students in Jefferson, Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties with six campuses, and fall 2009 enrollment stood at 2,069.
The five percent enrollment growth is expected to carry over into spring 2011. The added students, coupled with the credit-hour increase will raise tuition revenue by nearly $500,000 to just over $5.1 million, according to the budget.
The spending plan calls for a two percent salary increase for all 140 full- and part-time regular employees, including faculty.
The budget also assumes the college will receive about $200,000 in additional state aid specifically to help fund expansion efforts as it seeks to increase enrollment across the four counties.
Specifically, that money, if approved by the state, would go to hire recruiters, financial-aid counselors, additional staff at the Valley Center campus in Youngstown, and, potentially, staff for a Warren campus.
The budget also shows about $1.3 million set aside for the renovation of the second floor of the Pugliese Training Center on the Jefferson County campus.
The first floor houses the college’s work-force development facility. The second floor will house a student fitness center and some administrative offices.
All the funding will come from state and grant sources.
Major sources of budget funding include:
State subsidy: $4.88 million.
Tuition and fees: $5.12 million.
Jefferson County levy and state utility deregulation payments: $1.14 million.
Department of Labor Job Training Grant: $700,000.
Pugliese Grant: $465,220.
Accelerate Ohio program subsidy: $431,000.
State-funded building improvements: $2.05 million.