Fees Increasing For NWACC Students

BENTONVILLE — NorthWest Arkansas Community College students won’t see an increase in tuition this year, but they will pay more in fees.

The Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a set of fee increases and new fees to take effect July 1. The new fee schedule will bring the college an additional $1.3 million in revenue, according to Debi Buckley, college interim senior vice president of administration and chief financial officer.

The average student taking 12 credit hours will pay $71 more per semester compared to what that student pays now, Buckley said.

The new fee schedule, combined with cuts of about $2.5 million in expenditures, will help balance the college’s budget for fiscal year 2014, Buckley said. The college expects to have a balanced budget of $42,171,213, Buckley said.

Some of the fees will apply to all students; others will be specific to certain courses.

Three new fees will be implemented, each of which will be applied per student semester credit hour.

One is a security fee of $1.50 that will bring the college an estimated $251,000 during the next fiscal year. Most of that money will be used to hire a certified law enforcement officer and several part-time security officers and to enhance other security measures, such as cameras on campus.

One-third of security fee dollars will go toward strengthening mental health services for students. In the past year, the college has referred 58 students to off-campus mental health professionals, according to Todd Kitchen, vice president for learner support services. After following up on those referrals, the college confirmed only 21 of those students actually sought those services.

The new fee will enable the college to provide some mental health services on campus, Kitchen said.

Steven Gates, senior vice president for learning and provost, said the link between the security fee and mental health services is a response to recent mass shootings in America in which the perpetrators had been identified as being mentally ill.

Some other community colleges in Arkansas impose fees similar to the security fee. Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, for example, charges students a “public safety fee” of $20 per semester.

All students also will see a $2 hike in the technology fee, from $8.75 to $10.75, charged per student semester credit hour. That fee is intended to cover costs of licensing, maintenance agreements, Blackboard capacity and systems to monitor Internet traffic.

All students also will be charged a new fee of $1.50 per credit hour for library resources, attributed mainly to the increased costs of electronic databases and subscriptions.

Daniel Shewmaker, a trustee, asked Buckley whether there was any way to reduce the fees.

“I know we’re not calling it a tuition increase, but it seems like our students are going to feel it one way or another, no matter what we call it,” Shewmaker said.

Buckley said administrators worked hard to reduce expenditures.

“It’s not a fat budget by any stretch of the imagination,” she said.

College officials have said they started fiscal year 2013 with $5.8 million in the fund balance.

Shewmaker noted the 2014 fiscal year budget is based on the assumption that enrollment does not increase from this year. He asked whether any of the fees could be rolled back if enrollment increases. Officials said that could be done.

Though increased fees might discourage some from enrolling, they also provide equipment necessary for students to get a good education, said Joe Spivey, a trustee.

“I don’t want to see a student walk up and say, ‘You don’t have the technology I need here, so I’m going to go elsewhere,’” Spivey said.

Last year the college raised tuition by $2.50 per credit hour for in-district students and $5 for out-of-district students. It also raised the technology fee and learning support fee by 75 cents per credit hour, the infrastructure fee by $5 per semester and imposed a new facility maintenance fee of $1.50 per credit hour. Tuition has increased by almost 30 percent since 2008.

The college also has learned it likely will receive an additional $534,639 in general revenue from the state, as recommended by Gov. Mike Beebe. That would represent a 5.3 percent increase in money from the state.