Posted on Sat, May. 10, 2008

Community colleges to suffer cuts

Low tuition will cause sinking enrollment

By Art Jester

AJESTER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

FRANKFORT --

Thousands of students will be turned away from Kentucky's community colleges this fall because the public two-year schools can increase tuition by less than half the amount they need, an official said Friday.

Michael McCall, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, said about 6,000 people will be denied admission because the state Council on Postsecondary Education rejected the system's request for a 13 percent tuition increase.

Instead, the council approved annual tuition for in-state students that will go up $180, or 5.2 percent, this fall. Kentuckians will pay tuition of $3,630 a year.

McCall said the resulting $11.5 million revenue loss will bring layoffs of staff and part-time faculty, reduced student services and scaled-back or eliminated programs. KCTCS has already cut $13.5 million because of two state budget reductions this year.

McCall said total enrollment will drop from about 92,000 in fall 2007 to about 86,000, which equals the system's 2006 enrollment.

"For that to be necessary is extremely unfortunate," said Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, a leading advocate of the state's education reforms.

"This shows that budget cuts are more than just political skirmishes in Frankfort," Adkisson said. "They affect students, families and ultimately Kentucky businesses."

KCTCS offers workforce training programs for businesses.

In making its decision, the council relied on a staff recommendation presented by John Hayek, interim vice president for finance.

Hayek cited statistics showing KCTCS with the highest tuition among community colleges in the South and among the nation's highest. In addition, he said low-income families must spend 25 percent of their income to pay tuition at one of the 16 KCTCS colleges operated on 67 campuses statewide.

McCall said the real culprit is the "failure in the General Assembly to provide adequate funding for higher education reform" mandated by a 1997 state law.

A lower tuition increase, combined with layoffs and reductions, is a "double-edged sword," said Page Mendes, 42, of Lexington, who is working toward an associate's degree in information management design at Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

"I think it would be a shame to cap enrollment, because providing opportunity is what community colleges do to serve students," Mendes said. "But if they raised tuition higher, that would be a cap in a way."

Augusta Julian, president of BCTC, said faculty will have heavier teaching loads, bigger classes and less time to give individual attention.

"Students are going to fall through the cracks," Julian said.

There will be shorter hours for science and computer labs, and fewer on-campus jobs for students, she said.

Julian, who also has worked in North Carolina and Wisconsin, said she has never seen anything "on the scale of these cuts."

Mike Binzer, an engineering technology professor and chairman of the faculty council at BCTC, was disillusioned by the planned cuts.

"Kentucky does not value higher education unless you have a basketball team, it seems," he said. "State government hasn't stepped up to take higher education seriously."

Students will suffer from heavier teaching loads for faculty, many of whom are accustomed to working 50 to 60 hours a week, he said.

"The faculty are not here for the money," he said. "We are here for the love of our students."

In other action Friday, the council rejected a staff recommendation for an 8.5 percent tuition increase for Northern Kentucky University. The council approved NKU's request for charging 9.7 percent more.

NKU President James Votruba made an impassioned plea by describing his university's importance to creating jobs in the region.

He got crucial support from council member Kevin Canafax of Covington, an investment firm manager.

"We have as a company made a significant capital investment" in NKU, Canafax said. "We view the university as an economic engine not only for our region but for the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

In another surprise development, the council approved an amended request from Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell to charge higher tuition for out-of-state undergraduates.

The annual rate will go from $16,728 to $18,670.

Under state law, the council must approve tuition rates. It requires out-of-state tuition to be at least 1.75 times greater than the in-state rate.

Council approval was necessary for Ransdell's request because it involved a change in the staff's recommendation.

Ransdell said the higher rate will eliminate a $962,000 reduction that would have been necessary because the council approved an 8 percent in-state tuition increase instead of the 9 percent WKU sought.

The council also approved the 9 percent tuition increases requested by the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. The council staff's recommendation said the requests from the state's two research universities were justified.

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