The Maricopa Community College Board has been presented with a proposal to raise tuition for students in the MCC District by $4 per credit hour.

The raise in tuition would mean that students would pay $55 per credit hour instead of the current cost of $51 per credit hour. Tuition for full-time students taking 30 credit hours per year would increase by $120.00. A full time student would if the proposal is approved see a yearly tuition cost of $1,650. The MCCD Governing Board could approve the tuition increase at its next meeting on March 23.

A tuition increase is considered necessary by the MCCD because of several rising costs and uncertain state funding.

“I try to shift the responsibility (for the need for a tuition increase) to the state legislature,” said Mark Mason, district budget manager at a meeting at Phoenix College on March 4.

Mason was referring to the current session of the Arizona state legislature, which has been unable to adopt a budget for the upcoming year. Currently 12.02 percent of the MCCD resources come from state aid approved in the yearly budgets.

Since the announcement of the tuition increase proposal the District Budget office has been presenting information to students about the tuition increase at all district campuses. A meeting was originally scheduled to take place at Glendale Community College on March 23 at 1:30 p.m.

The long amount of time between that meeting and the meetings held on all other campuses led to an open forum scheduled to take place on March 10 at 1 p.m. in the Council Chambers inside the Student Union.

The March 10, meeting hosted by District Budget Manager, Mark Mason, will serve as an open forum to discuss the tuition increase and the budget increases that have according to the district made the increase necessary will be hosted by District Budget Manager, Mark Mason.

The rising costs in the district are from two primary sources, the hiring of 25 new faculty members, which cost $1.8 million and the largest increase in the budget expenses for the next year is $16.7 million for enrollment growth fund. Enrollment growth is the money that colleges receive to maintain and upgrade facilities to compensate for rising student populations. The total increase in expenses estimated by the district for the fiscal year 2004-2005 is $28.3 million.

At present the MCCD receives 21.47 percent of its resources from tuition and 58.74 percent from property taxes. Governing Board at its next meeting in addition to the tuition increase the board will decide about placing a bond on the November 2004 election ballot.

The Governing Board meeting on March 23, begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be at the District Office located at 2411 W. 14th St., Tempe. Students may sign in and speak to the board during the citizen’s interim at the beginning of the meeting.