MHCC BOARD APPROVES TUITION AND FEE INCREASE

Student tuition rates were again raised and student activity fees were increased, while several faculty members won tenure or sabbatical approval when the Mt. Hood Community College District board of education met on March 14.

Board members voted unanimously to raise tuition by $7 per credit , effective for Summer Term 2018 classes starting June 25.

They also ended the tuition pledge, which had locked the price of tuition for students to the rate they started paying upon entering MHCC.

“Students that remain eligible for the pledge from (20)15-16, (20)16-17, and (20)17-18 will continue paying the tuition rate when they started. An new students that begin next year (September 2018) will not be eligible for any sort of a tuition pledge,” said Jennifer DeMent, MHCC’s chief operations officer.

The student activity fee, which funds the student government, co-curricular activities (such as The Advocate and the MHCC forensics (speech/debate) team), and athletics, was increased by 50 cents per credit.

Raising the fees involved looking at student surveys conducted by Mt. Hood’s Student Development department. “Looking at the financial model – if we were to keep the student fee at $3.50, that would have been a very hard situation for us because we would have had to cut (student programs) a lot, so that caused us to look at a student fee increase,” said Nathan Skarphol, ASG (Associated Student Government) vice president and director of finance.

The raise will help to make sure a large enough contingency exists in order to cover funding shortfalls if enrollment ends up being lower than projected.

Even with the tuition and fee increases, the college still will not be in a positive financial standing. “It brings our forecast for next year to a $500,000 shortfall,” said DeMent. “We still do have some cuts to make to have a balanced budget.”

Tenure, sabbaticals granted

The board also formally approved seven instructors for tenure. They include Amber Lamadrid, accounting instructor; Alexandra Tripp, nursing instructor; Jeanna Hunt, respiratory care instructor; David Strohl, Integrated Media adviser and instructor for photography; Deborah Saari, ESL instructor; Sean McGinty, reading and writing instructor; and Peter Cunningham, economics instructor.

All sabbatical requests for next school year were approved by the board. Eleven instructors will be taking time off from teaching in order to find new methods of instructing or to earn higher certification in their current field.

They are: Janet Campbell, political science instructor; Chris Gorsek, criminal justice instructor; Eric Tschuy, modern languages instructor; Naomi Abrahams, sociology instructor; Alison Warr, math instructor; Matt Hart, health and physical education instructor; Michele Hampton, literature and composition instructor; Susan Ball, ESL instructor; Nathan Orosco, sculpting instructor; Robert Hauss, math instructor; and Jack Brooke, biology instructor.

Math instructors Tambi Boyle and Sara Williams explained to the board newly introduced math classes that students may take if they are pursuing non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines.

While STEM classes require calculus-based math, the two new non-STEM courses – Math 58 and Math 98: Quantitative Reasoning I and II – rely on statistics-based math.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for April 18 at 7 p.m. A budget committee meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m.