Tuition for students at Butler County Community College is set to go up next year.
The BC3 Board of Trustees approved the $29.8 million budget for the for next school. It’s very close to last year’s budget, but the college’s Vice President of Business and Finance Jim Hrabosky says they will be at a deficit.
“We’re still in a position where our revenues are not hitting our expenses. We’re probably going to end up about $1.4 million in the hole for this fiscal year,” Hrabosky said.
Each credit will increase by $5 and there will also be an additional $5 added to the student fees. Hrabosky said while there are a couple of reasons the college is looking at a deficit, the main culprit is that the number of credits that are being taken at the college has fallen dramatically over the last 15 years.
“We estimate that this year we’ll have 47,000 to 48,000 this year. To put that in perspective our high point in the college’s history we sold about 94,000 credits in 2011,” Hrabosky.
Over the last couple of years, BC3 was able to avoid deficits due to federal assistance. However, that came to an end this past school year, which led to a true operating deficit for the college.
This year’s budget projects a four percent increase in state funding, although Governor Josh Shapiro is asking for an eight percent increase for community colleges.
Hrabosky says the college has avoided layoffs, but is reassessing positions if someone retires.
