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Earlier this month the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve a tuition increase on the non-resident tuition fee for international and out-of-state students beginning in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, which will generate millions of dollars in revenue per year.

While the registration and tuition fees will increase, the capital outlay fee will decrease, saving students a whopping $6 per unit. Capital outlay fees are the extra $35 dollars per unit that non-resident students pay, which covers the costs of infrastructure and wear and tear on the facilities.

Board of Trustees Vice-President Ross Selvidge spoke in detail about the proposal during the board’s Feb. 10 regular meeting.

Kristen Luna/Courier The interior of the international student center in D204 on Wednesday, March 3. With a six dollar increase in tuition, PCC will generate a 9 million dollar rincrease in evenue each year.
Kristen Luna/Courier
The interior of the international student center in D204 on Wednesday, March 3. With a sixteen dollar increase in tuition, PCC will generate a 9 million dollar increase in revenue each year.

“This was considered at the last audit and budget committee meeting and we went over the figure with the staff, and the committee recommended approval to the full board,” Selvidge said. “There’s a page in the proposal that shows what the non-resident tuition fees are for a number of other districts and we’re pretty much in the pack.”

The board confirmed that revenue from the increase would generate between $8 million and $9.5 million annually.

“That’s a big piece of our budget and that’s money that we can spend on anything, and it’s not a big change from last year,” Selvidge said.

The current non-resident tuition and registration fees include $195 per unit, $46 per unit and a capital outlay fee of $35 per unit. Under the new tuition structure, students will pay $211 per unit, $46 per unit and a capital outlay fee of $13 per unit.

Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs Cynthia Olivo and her staff prepared the proposal for the board.

“Essentially what we do is the business service area of the college receives a memo from the state chancellors office and based upon that we make our recommendation to the Board of Trustees subcommittee,” Olivo said. “We then look at … data for comparison colleges to help recommend our data to the board.”

The revenue from tuition and registration is invested into the overheard expenses related to providing education to the students. This provides instructors for courses, paying for the counseling services and other expenses incurred to provide an education. The rest of the funding remains at the college to help absorb any other expenses related to running the college.

Olivo explained the breakdown of where this money goes.

“The fact is, 87 percent to 89 percent of the colleges budget pays for employees and the rest remains for any of the other extras that we may need to provide students,” she said.

PCC student Thy Nguyen feels that due to the large amount of money paid by international students, some of the revenue should be spent on more programs for those students.

”International students pay a lot of money and the programs that we receive are not comparable to other schools,” Nguyen said. “I transferred from Washington State and I deeply feel like we pay a lot and we don’t receive much back.”

Nguyen would like to see international students receive priority registration privileges and a well-formed club and organization for student support.

Where exactly the increased revenue will be spent remains to be seen.

The PCC website states that the current non resident tuition is $193 per unit, which would come to a $4 per unit decrease but the board and Olivo confirm an actual $6 per unit decrease.

 

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One Reply to “Non-resident tuition increase to net millions in revenue”

  1. I wish the author included opinions from local community college students since this issue affect them also!

    Thy Nguyen is completely wrong! It is ridiculous
    that International Students are asking for more services and priority registration. Local students DO NOT receive enough support services and compensation. Sure, there are tons of students like me who pay 46 dollars per unit because we don’t qualify for the BOG Waiver, but the point of Community College is for local students. Local students still lack the necessary support and pay enormous amount of money.

    What Thy doesn’t see is that community colleges are supported by local property tax dollars, therefore the program and services ought to reflect to local students. It was a good thing what the Board of Trustees decided , but I do wish that there is regulation on International Students throughout the California Community College System. For example, at Mount San Antonio College , the number of International Students is rising and sadly the transfer and graduation rate of local students is moslty plateuing. It is ridiculous that the board of true at Mt. SAC is placing interest on capitalizing on International Students over the local students which is a huge disinvestment, considering that the local property taxes of the neighboring communities of Diamond Bar and Walnut are high.

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