The tuition for Pierce’s full 2015-16 year has been finally decided on, and it’s looking like good news for residential students.

According to a spreadsheet from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBTC) (for online: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/admin/FY-2016-Community-College-Tuition-and-Fee-Rates-FINAL.pdf), tuition has gone down since the 2014-15 year.  Assuming the student is taking 15 credits per quarter, tuition for this year will be roughly $1,282.00 quarterly and $3,846.00 yearly, as opposed to 2014-15’s  $1,333.35 quarterly and $4,000.05 yearly; a difference of $154.05 per year.  

In contrast, tuition for non-residents has gone up, and they have to deal with much more substantial fees overall than the regular students.  Yearly tuition in the 2014-15 year was $3,078.40 quarterly and $9,235.20 yearly, and has gone up to $3,083.00 quarterly and $9,249.00 yearly in the 2015-16 year, an increase in $14.  

Every two years, state legislature decides a two-year operating budget, which includes funding for colleges.  The SBCT then approves a uniform tuition rate for the 34 colleges they have jurisdiction over, and then allocates these funds to the colleges through their agency.

According to Laura McDowell, director of communications at the SBCT, “The amount of funding and the level of tuition increase are directly related: the deeper the budget cuts, the higher the tuition increase…  Think of the budget as a balloon: if the Legislature squeezes the higher education end (either through cuts or underfunding), the tuition end increases. This is why the community and technical college system and the four-year universities link arms every legislative session to advocate for state funding for higher education.”

State legislation has in fact decided to cut the tuition operating fee for fall 2015 by five percent, and this will remain the flat fee for two years starting in the fall of 2016.  In the year of 2017, the tuition operating fee will no longer be allowed to exceed the 14-year average percent increase in the median hourly wage.

“Tuition operating fee” refers to what most simply call “tuition,” but in reality only dictates operating and building fees.  SBTC sets a maximum limit on service and activity fees, but otherwise S&A is decided by the individual school.

This is the first major change in tuition fees since the 2012-13 school year, according to a spreadsheet (attached) provided by Julie Anderson, one of Pierce’s Program Support Supervisors and member of the Registration and Records Department.

But how does Pierce stack up to the cost of tuition nationwide?  According to collegeboard.org (http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-published-undergraduate-charges-sector-2014-15) the average tuition of “Public Two-Year In-District” colleges is $3,347, as opposed to Pierce’s $3,846, a diference of $499.

These changes in tuition have still caused trouble for some students.  Because the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges was late in its finalization of the year’s tuition rates (with the operating budget approved on June 30, the very day before it was set to take effect on July 1, according to McDowell), students who had already paid tuition have experienced refunds and financial aid adjustments that complicate what would normally be a more simple process.

According to Anderson, late decisions like this from state legislature, as well as the nature of not being privy to their internal decisions until the decision is made, make tuition rates difficult to predict on a yearly basis.

Hiro Yuki is an international student studying at Pierce, and is going for a general studies major.  Yuki shared that before coming to Pierce he was a student at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, WA, which has a tuition of $33,194 for the 2015-16 school year.  

Yuki said that in comparison to a full university, Pierce is much less costly and he doesn’t believe the cost of tuition is too high.  On average, community colleges have much lower tuition costs than universities.

“I don’t know any of the specifics of what goes into deciding tuition [for each school year],” he said, adding a guess that it took such things as faculty pay and facilities into account.  “How they [the state legislature] decides tuition should be more open to students.”