Back to Apache home page                                        To  story about college budget, tuition increase

Who wants to be a millionaire? Not IVCC.

The IVCC college board voted to raise tuition by one dollar for next semester, and two dollars for the summer semester. The increase will put IVCC tuition at $50 per credit hour within a year.

The tuition hike was made because of increased costs.

"The board would prefer to have incremental increases in the tuition rather than have a big increase," said college president Dr. Jean Goodnow. "We need the money to continue to operate at a high-quality level."

The increase means the college will bring in $70,000. It was the first tuition increase since May of 1999. At that time, tuition was $45 per credit hour. Since then, IVCC has reached a status known as "equalization."

Because IVCC’s ratio of the equalized assessed valuation to total credit hours is below the state average, the college qualifies for equalization. It allows the school board to increase the tax levy without a referendum. There hasn’t been a property tax increase in IVCC’s district in more than 30 years.

Why didn’t the board use its new power to raise money to pay for increasing costs? The board could’ve raised more money.

With a one-cent raise in the tax rate, the college receives $210,000. The board can raise the levy up to 6.01 cents. If the board took full advantage of its new power, it could bring in $1.26 million, 18 times more what a one-dollar tuition increase will make.