Kirkwood board will hear tuition increase proposal

CEDAR RAPIDS - Kirkwood Community College President Mick Starcevich likely will recommend a tuition increase of $8 to $10 per credit hour Thursday to the Kirkwood board of trustees.

That would represent an increase of 6.8 percent to 8.5 percent to the current Kirkwood tuition rate of $118 per credit hour.

Starcevich on Wednesday said he would decide on his final tuition proposal to the board of trustees before Thursday's board meeting, after he hears fall enrollment projections Thursday morning.

The biggest drivers of the tuition increase are the expectations that state general aid to Kirkwood for next year will remain flat and that fall enrollment will decline, Starcevich said.

“I'm probably leaner closer to the high side than to the low side” of an $8 to $10 increase, Starcevich said Wednesday.

Iowa's community colleges were hit with a $5.9 million de-appropriation in the waning days of Gov. Chet Culver's administration. Kirkwood's share of that January budget cut was about $960,000, Starcevich said.

Kirkwood officials cut about $450,000 through reductions and efficiencies, he said, but that leaves about $500,000 to be made up in other ways. That's where the tuition increase comes in, he said.

“But again, we're the lowest in the state, so we're still one heck of a great value,” Starcevich said. “We provide very high quality, and we've got the lowest tuition.”

Based on 2010-11 tuition rates, Kirkwood remained tied for lowest per-credit-hour tuition rate among Iowa's 15 community colleges, at $118. The statewide average this year is $134.89.

If fall enrollment does decline and the state appropriation for 2011-12 drops instead of the expectation that it will stay steady, then Starcevich said he will go back to the board of trustees in the fall and seek a mid-year tuition increase next year.