The 2.2 percent tuition hike is expected to generate approximately $625,000 in fiscal year 2014.
Cincinnati State Middletown students will be paying more to attend classes in the fall.
The Cincinnati State board of trustees approved a tuition increase, effective with the 2013 fall semester, that will rise from $142.17 per credit hour to $145.30 per credit hour.
Cincinnati State Middletown in downtown is the first community college in Butler County.
The 2.2 percent tuition hike is expected to generate approximately $625,000 in fiscal year 2014, Michael Geoghegan, vice president for finance/treasurer, told the board during Tuesday’s meeting.
The board also approved a $73 million operating budget for the 2014 fiscal year that begins July 1.
The tuition resolution approved by the board notes that Cincinnati State has experienced a $1.37 million, or 4.5 percent, decrease in state funding since fiscal year 2011, Geoghegan said.
On an annualized basis, tuition and fees for a full-time student at Cincinnati State in the 2013-14 school year will be approximately $4,617, he said. That remains one of the lowest levels among regional universities, branch campuses and community colleges, he said.
Tom Hale, assistant director of the Middletown campus, said the goal is to have 425 students enrolled by the fall. So far, he said, there are 360 enrolled.
The community college opened in August 2012 with more than 350 total students, of which 211 were first-time Cincinnati State students. When the second semester started, of the 400 total students enrolled, 166 were new students. The goal was 150.
Two students, Jamison Gilmore, 31 of Dayton, and Jack Wright, 40, of Hamilton, hope the tuition increase doesn’t derail their college education. They both have students loans, they said.
“This may be the difference between me staying or going,” said Wright, who is unemployed after he was laid off from the Butler County Water and Sewer Department last summer. “When you are on a fixed income, there is no extra money.”
Officials at the community college said it has plans to reduce spending, including freezing more than 30 open positions
“While hate to do it,” Cincinnati State President O’dell M. Owens said of the tuition increase, “we really didn’t have much choice.”
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