Governor visits Crowder campus

Tuition at community colleges across the state may go up this year, but not much.

Gov. Jay Nixon and First Lady Georganne Nixon traveled to Crowder College Tuesday morning to bring the news.

“As we looked at this year we knew that we would be unable to hold tuition completely flat again,” the governor said. “I’m happy to announce that community college presidents across the state of Missouri are going to be recommending to their boards that tuition be increased by no more than $5 per credit hour this year in the state of Missouri.

“Folks, taking out an extra Lincoln to get this kind of Cadillac education is a very, very good deal for Missouri students that will continue to keep us competitive in that lower cost education.”

Crowder president Dr. Alan Marble said the school was prepared for 15, 20 or even 25 percent cuts and he was happy when the governor announced only a 7 percent cut last week. How much will tuition increase at Crowder? Marble said he will ask the board for a $5 increase to be approved for the fall semester.

“Holding our tuition to a reasonable amount is just fair, I think, to our students,” Marble said. “That’s what we’re going to try to do. We raise tuition reluctantly in the first place, but we have to put back some revenue and to keep it as modest as we can just goes hand-in-hand with what the governor wants to do.”

Online fees at Crowder will increase to $14 per credit hour in the fall — an overdue change — school representatives said during the December board of governors’ meeting. The change was approved on final vote following Nixon’s visit.

GROWTH
Crowder leads the state in expanding enrollment, with a streak of record-breaking enrollment highs.

Growth in certificates and associate degrees has gone up 7.5 percent, Nixon said, as Missouri hit more than 100,000 community college students across the state this school year.

Nixon said there has also been a dramatic increase on the number of high school students getting to community colleges because of the A+ program. Monday he announced an A+ expansion: Students who attend schools not in the A+ program can qualify independently for the free tuition it offers.

“We want to expand the access for outstanding students — those who keep a B average, who go to school 95 percent of the time, who do community service in high school — will have the opportunity to have that degree with no tuition or fees,” Nixon said. “Those are exactly the kind of people we want to invest in and support.”

His supplemental budget includes an additional $3.5 million to fund the A+ program.

Programs like Training for Tomorrow and Caring for Missourians, will also help colleges stay on budget. Crowder has benefited from both – its EMT program showcased new equipment on the governor’s last visit.
Nixon pointed to the program’s 40 graduates as examples of what those initiatives can do. All 40 grads, Marble told him, had jobs waiting for them once they graduated.

“We’ve always said that connection, that tight connection between community colleges and employment was really, really important,” Nixon said. “Folks need to know if they’re unemployed or underemployed the place they need to walk to is the admissions office of a community college in the state of Missouri.”

Educational access, he said, should not be limited by cost something he believes Missouri has done well.

"For the last two years as we’ve looked around the country we’ve seen tuition skyrocket,” he said. “That has not been the case here in the Show-Me state.”

Crowder, he told reporters, is ready to help students.

"Crowder has a long and strong record of being open, accessible and being a great place for traditional and non-traditional students,” Nixon said.