The Yavapai College Governing Board voted 4-1 on Nov. 19 to accept a proposal that would increase tuition for the upcoming year. The board met remotely and continues to decline to meet in person.
Clint Ewell, Ph.D, the college’s chief operating officer, gave a presentation to the board which outlined the steps the college will take to establish these increases.
“This is the time of year, where we’re telling you what our crystal ball is telling us, and it’s just that — it’s our best educated guess as to how things are going to play out with both revenues and expenses.” he said.
But the vote for the tuition proposal came on Nov. 19, with all but District 1 board member William Kiel in favor.
In February, the board will do a budget work study session, followed by a capital budget proposal in March, a proposed preliminary budget including the operating budget in April and the f inal budget proposed and voted on in May.
“Our primary source of revenues is our local property taxes,” Ewell said. “The state of Arizona over the past several decades has really slowly but steadily defunded its support of community colleges, and it has really fallen on the backs of both local property taxpayers and of our students.”
The college raised property taxes in the last academic year. Ewell said the college raises the tax levy about every three years.
About 48% of the college’s revenue comes from property taxes, another 12% comes from tuition and fees, 9% and 2% from federal and state government, respectively, and 14% each from the fund balance and the “other” category.
Ewell said he used a third-party tax evaluation system, Tax Foundation, to compare Arizona to other states.
“What you see here is that Arizona has the third-lowest effective property tax rate in the country, which is really phenomenal,” Ewell said.
Board member Toby Payne [District 3] asked for a chart comparison of what the state gives community colleges versus four-year institutions for students and future board meetings.
“One of the things that we’re very proud of is that we are very price competitive here at Yavapai College,” Ewell said during his presentation. “We’re the third-lowest tuition and fee rate in the state, and compared to our four-year brethren, we are about 20% of their cost.”
Tuition ranges at Yavapai college between $113 to $305 per credit hour.
Most are below $200 per credit hour.
The $305 credit hours are 300 and 400 level nursing courses.
“That does represent almost a fourth of our enrollment and those students are essentially attending for free because they’re either paid for by the [Career Technical Education District] or the high schools, and we have a whole other set of students with less financial means that have access to the Pell Grant,” Ewell said. “So that’s another 30%. So, over half of our students are attending either at a discount or for free.”
The proposed increase is 3% for tuition, roughly $450,000 in revenue, and 15% for meal plans, which varies by student. Ewell’s presentation also made an assumption of a 3% growth in students.
“I would have rather kept the tuition stable and maybe not put an $800,00 sign up by the CTEC building,” Kiel said. “There are a lot of students who simply don’t have it. I actually toured our K-12 and a lot of our students are struggling and I would like to see no tuition increase.”
He said he met with Yavapai County Superintendent of Schools Steve King and toured several K-12 school and saw many struggling financially. Citing King, he said 85% of students are on discounted or free lunches.
“Anybody who’s going to qualify for free and reduced lunch, when they come here they will be Pell-eligible, so they would be able to get a grant to attend for free or if they come directly out of high school, they could attend for free via the college promise, the YC promise,” Ewell said. “In regard to your comments about the $800,000 — and again I think we’ll have a chance to talk about this in February in greater depth — but in general, using one-time money to fund recurring costs is a bad practice.”
“I just want to emphasize that our board role is looking at the present and the future,” Board chairwoman Deb McCasland said. “When the board decides on what the budget will include, that’s that year and we move forward, and the boards make the best decisions that they can.”
The upper class levels in general education, CTE and health are 50% more expensive than freshmen- and sophomore-level courses, but their proposed increase is the same 3% as the rest of the college’s tuition.
“It’s typically smaller class sizes and there may be additional accreditation issues associated with offering those programs for it’s an opportunity for us to try to keep ourselves whole,” Ewell said.
“The legislation that passed in May of 2021 … community colleges were allowed then to offer those [baccalaureate degrees],” College President Lisa Rhine said. “They did not put a limit on us in terms of how much we could charge beyond our regular tuition for the 300 and 400 level. They did put a limit on Maricopa and Pima. We are trying to stay cost competitive with them.”
Ewell said the cost per pupil for the college is lower than it was in 1980.
Student Newspaper
Alyssa Bullock, the Student Government Association’s treasurer, gave a presentation to the board about the SGA’s goals. She said the main initiative for the academic year is to start the Student News Network, which will include a podcast and a digital student newspaper.
“This platform will promote student engagement, retention and success; highlight student resources and services; and help bridge gaps in awareness and access to support,” she said.
Vice President of Community Relations and Student Development Rodney Jenkins said it would be a much better way to communicate with students and have students communicate with each other.
The board’s next meeting is Thursday, Jan. 22, at 1 p.m. online.
