Cody Bahn and Crystal Chavez / Foghorn staff
Coming this Fall, a tuition increase of $62 for 12 credit hours will be added to the current fees that students pay. At this time, in-district students taking 12 credit semester hours pay $1,107 and the proposed tuition increase for in-district students taking 12 credit semester hours is $1,169.
According to DMC Student Government Association (SGA) members, DMC Provost
Fernando Figeroa met with SGA officers on February 18 to discuss a possible tuition increase.
“The increase will go directly back to students,” said Figeroa.
Jaclean Harris, SGA president, said that the increase is not for administration wages, but for all the programs that are available for student success.
SGA Treasurer, Blanca S. Canales, said that she has had contact with students who are not aware of all the services that DMC has, services that this tuition increase will be helping to pay for.
Students can rent laptops and tablets and have several tutoring programs such as the Student Success Center, Stone Writing Center, Math Learning Center, Peer Tutoring Center and Trio Program. Besides tutoring programs, tuition and fees pay for access to the Gymnasium’s workout room and swimming pool.
“This tuition increase will not hurt us, but help us because it is going back into the programs that assist students,” said Harris.
Some students share in Harris’ feeling toward this increase. Alejandro Guerrero, a computer programming major at DMC, said that he sees no problem with the increase, if it is going back to students.
According to DMC President Mark Escamilla, even though DMC is making an increase, DMC will remain at almost one third the cost of regional universities.
Canales said, “overall, DMC is still a great value with a difference in savings of $2343 for full-time students attending DMC compared to TAMU-CC,” said Canales.
Escamilla said that tuition increases are never taken lightly, but are sometimes a “necessary move to make.” He said that it is about every other year that Texas legislation decides to make cuts to education.
“When we do raise tuition, we only do it by the minimum amount,” said Escamilla.
Harris said, “Many students get concerned when there is a tuition increase, but this increase will go to increasing resources for these programs.”
