By Brittany Williams
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — The South Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees, administrators and college president Dr. Barbara Jones discuss a proposed increase in course and program fees during a board meeting Tuesday.
The board’s budget and finance committee recommended that fees, especially for students in the college’s various health and natural sciences programs, should be increased this fall, board co-chair Veronica Creer said.
“The goal is … to move to a user-based fee program,” Creer said. “The goal is to close the gap between expenses, supplies or accreditation for specific programs and the revenue for the students that will directly benefiting from those programs’ supplies or accreditation.”
Dr. Jones said that the college has been “very, very fortunate” to receive grants from the SHARE Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor and through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“In all those cases, there was money for supplies and equipment so we’ve been supplementing what it took for these programs with grants … We don’t have it now,” she said. “I think that we’re seeing now that we don’t have those resources coming in but we still need those things.”
According to SouthArk’s website, three of the college’s top five majors are in the health and natural sciences department: nursing, physical therapy assistant and occupational therapy assistant.
The college’s budget for its practical nursing program is about $16,500 and it brings in only $5,000, finance and administration vice president Carey Tucker said.
“With this proposal for the course fees, we’re raising the revenue to $9,200. We’re still not at the $16,000 level, but we’re getting closer,” he said. “The main reason why we’re suggesting this is … we want to get to the point where they cover their supplies and accreditation because otherwise we’re basically asking other students to subsidize it.”
The recommendation would increase fees by $70,000, Tucker said. Though he recognizes that some accreditation limit enrollment for certain programs, the finance and administration vice president said that other funding options include continuing to require all students to subsidize fee costs for the college’s most popular programs or axing programs with lower enrollment.
“This is not an idea that just came from the administration. I had a conversation with all of the program directors for all of these courses and they’re the one that came up with the solution of the program fee doubling,” Tucker said. “They’re the ones with the students and that’s why they also suggested that we get approved this month so we can start it in the summer because that’s when their cohorts start. They didn’t want the cohort to start with one fee and then pay another fee for the next semester.”
SouthArk’s registered nursing program, for example, would be part of this increase due to changes within the Arkansas Rural Nursing Education Consortium (ARNEC), Dr. Jones said.
“In the case of the RN program, we’re part of ARNEC and it’s increased per student I think $165. That’s the fee that’s going to go up on us. They’re adding a new faculty member to that consortium as well as increasing the salary of the program director and faculty of that program, so they charge us per student,” Jones said.
Board trustee Gary Griffis expressed concern about the fee increases and challenged fellow trustees to “do the right thing.”
“I’m suggesting that it’s total spend. We’re talking about $70,000,” he said. “I’m just challenging these every time one of these comes up. If you bring a tuition increase, I haven’t challenged anything like I will challenge that … We’ve got to make sure our motives are right when we talk about raising the total cost of education for the students.”
8.46 percent of SouthArk students pay out-of-state tuition, according to the college’s 2016-2017 fact card.
“I also agree with Gary … A lot of these students travel here and are already paying more than other areas at this college and I’m afraid that if we double our fees, we’ll might scare some away,” trustee Kerri Brown said.
Trustee Dr. Kermit Parks said that he “understands” the reasoning behind a course fee increase, but he opposes a tuition increase starting in the Fall 2017 semester.
“In the past five years, we have lost an enrollment of 12 percent … I realize that there’s a lot of things going on in society right now, but I think we have to think outside the box as Gary suggests,” Parks said.
Though a few SouthArk trustees voted against the increase, the board ultimately approved the course and program fee increases.
Brittany Williams may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and like her on Facebook @BWilliamsEDNT for updates on Union County school news.