College tuition to rise in 2019

By Kristine Galloway
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
 
CHEYENNE — Local full-time college students will pay significantly more for tuition next year.
The Wyoming Community College Commission voted earlier this month to cap tuition at 15 credits, instead of 12. They also increased tuition by $5 per credit hour.
That means Laramie County Community College students could pay a few hundred dollars more each semester.
"For a significant portion of our students, this will sort of be a double whammy of tuition," LCCC President Joe Schaffer said.
If an in-state student took 15 credit hours a semester this year, they would pay $94 per credit hour and pay only for the first 12. That's $1,128.
Starting in fall 2019, that same student will pay $99 per credit hour for all 15 credits. That's $1,485.
Overall, it's $357 more a semester and $714 more a year. If a student does graduate in four semesters, that's $1,428 more for the degree than students who graduate this spring.
In addition to increasing tuition to $99 per credit hour for in-state students, tuition will increase to $148 per credit hour for students in the Western Undergraduate Exchange Program and $297 for out-of-state students.
Schaffer said he supports increasing the tuition cap from 12 to 15 credits. He said LCCC administrators and the Board of Trustees believe it will bring attention to the need for students to take 15 or more credit hours each semester to complete their degree on time.
Currently, there is a tendency to believe 12 credit hours is enough because students who take 12 are considered full-time students. 
But many students cannot graduate in four semesters if they take just 12 credits a semester.
However, Schaffer asked the commissioners at their meeting not to increase the tuition this year.
He said LCCC officials do not support the tuition increase for a few reasons. One is the fact that full-time students already will pay more with the increased tuition cap.
Schaffer also said they believe more information is needed regarding the affordability of community colleges in Wyoming. He explained that some people argue that community colleges in Wyoming can afford to increase tuition because they're more affordable than colleges in other states.
"My question is: how do we even know that the other states are even affordable? Do we really want to continue to march after them because we currently charge less?" Schaffer said.
He compared it to lemmings following each other off cliffs.
Schaffer added the new policy tasks the commission with increasing tuition on odd-numbered years to follow the state budget cycle, so the next tuition increase should be in 2019, not this year.
So, the commission may discuss an increase in October 2019, as well.
The commissioners also approved a new tuition policy that allows them to approve tuition increases that keep the tuition within 23 and 28 percent of total community college revenue.
Sandy Caldwell, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, said the current tuition is 21.22 percent of total revenue.
Including the $5 increase next year, the tuition still will not meet 23 percent. The commissioners would have needed to increase tuition to $104 per credit hour to get there, but they chose to keep tuition below $100 per credit hour.
The Wyoming Community College Commission did not make these decisions lightly, however. And some commissioners were strongly against the changes.
Commissioner Craig Frederick said he did not agree with placing tuition between 23 and 28 percent of total revenue.
He said the commission needs to research the actual cost of education in Wyoming before considering where tuition should fall within total revenue.
"To me, we're throwing the students under the bus and making them pay more so that we can set a benchmark and have a place to go," Frederick said.
He added that increasing tuition to fall within those brackets could increase tuition by more than 40 percent for some students and that he doesn't want to be responsible for that.
Commissioner Larry Atwell suggested increasing the tuition cap by one credit hour each year for three years to prevent such a shocking increase in tuition.
Community college presidents found themselves split on the tuition increase, as well. 
Karla Leach, president of Western Wyoming Community College, did not support the increase. Paul Young, president of Sheridan College, and Darren Divine, president of Casper College, supported the tuition increase if it stayed below $100.
Schaffer said the tuition increase will affect about half of the local student population, or about 3,300 students.
In theory, that should mean LCCC will receive nearly $1.2 million more in tuition per semester. Schaffer said it's not that simple, though.
"Community college students are very susceptible to price increases. Price increases at community college often result in declined enrollment," he explained.
LCCC already is experiencing declining enrollment - though much of that is because of increased graduation rates - so the added cost could exacerbate the problem, Schaffer said.
But he said "if there is an upside," it's that the increased tuition will help some of the state's colleges, especially considering state money to community colleges flattened out following funding cuts.
Any additional tuition money LCCC does gain will go toward the college's Guided Pathways program, expanded program offerings or deficits in student services, such as career counseling and advising.