OK, CSN students, should we start with the good news or the bad news?
Hm.
Let’s go with the good news: Those long lines you have to wait in for everything from registration to academic counseling might be shorter next year.
The bad news: You might have a pay a little more to make those lines shorter.
The Board of Regents (the governing body of public higher education in Nevada) is considering a 4 percent tuition and fee increase at its next meeting. The increase would be in each of the next four years.
For a full-time CSN student taking 15 credits per semester, that would mean an increase of $52.50 in the fall of 2015 over this year, and another $52.50 the following fall, and so on. The total cost per-semester would still be below the average cost in the western United States for community colleges.
The Board will discuss the proposed tuition and fee increase at its meeting on the CSN campus March 6th and 7th. They will not vote on the issue until the June meeting, however. If approved, the increase would come after two years with no increases.
CSN President Michael Richards
CSN President Michael Richards, at a forum on campus this week designed to get feedback from CSN students, said money raised by the tuition and fee increase would be used to provide need-based financial aid and to improve student services, a pressing need at CSN.
“The kinds of things directly impacting students and their ability to have a positive experience at CSN,” he said.
He provided a chart outlining exactly how the money would be spent. With 15 percent set aside for financial aid, the rest would go toward hiring eight academic counselors, two employees in the disability resource center, four in the registrar’s office, and four in financial aid. That’s just in the first year, 2015. Similar hiring would follow the next year.
Dan Klaich, the state’s higher education chancellor, said students across Nevada have endured budget cuts over the last several years. “We have cut budgets for five years,” he said. “It’s time to stop cutting.”
Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Daniel Klaich
CSN officials have avoided cutting classes as much as possible, particularly as demand increased during the recession. But cuts did affect student services, often resulting in lines and long waits for students.
Richards said that while some improvements have been made in that area, more are sorely needed. “My goal has been to reduce the lines,” he said.
Students at the forum generally supported the tuition and fee increase, but they stressed that they want the extra money to make a difference in their experience at CSN. Richards promised that it would.