The Vermont State Colleges board of trustees is revisiting last year’s decision to freeze tuition for the 2016–17 school year.
“I have asked the board of trustees as the chancellor to consider the tuition question for the next school year with a clean slate and to look at the individual colleges and their financial position, their competitive position, their needs, and make a decision based on the individual characteristics of each college and not force a more generic decision,” said Jeb Spaulding, chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges.
“For example,” he continued, “[a] community college of two-year programs and a lot of individual courses is a very different kind of institution than Johnson State College, a four-year residential college. The more I’ve learned over time, the more I think we ought to look at each college on its own and discuss the situation with the president and let them get the input of their community.”
The board of trustees will convene at Johnson State College in February to hear the recommendation of the finance committee.
Previously the board of trustees had decided to not raise tuition for the 2016-17 school year as a financial incentive for recruiting students. It would have been the first tuition freeze in 35 years.
With enrollment numbers continuing to decline and a lack of support from the state, the college is increasingly reliant on tuition to maintain operating revenues.
Vermont is one of the worst ranked states when it comes to public funding of higher education. For the average American public college, tuition covers only 47.1 percent of its operating costs, according to the 2014 State Higher Education Finance report. In Vermont it covers 84.5 percent.