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By Nita Gandhi / Interim News Editor
Too much money (Allison Perez / Interim Photo Editor )
By Nita Gandhi / Interim News Editor
Every student at Riverside City College whether they are full or part-time will be feeling the pinch with the increase in the tuition fee of $36 per unit by the State of California.
“RCC is at the mercy of the State to make the fee increase,” said Riverside Community College District President Janet Green.
The State of California is about $26 billion in debt and with the state in a budget crisis they increased tuition fees for community college students.
Aaron Brown, associate vice chancellor of finance, said that the fee increase is not set by RCC but is determined by State guidelines.
The question is if this fee increase will have an impact on enrollment to RCC.
“There is that possibility,” Brown said.
“There is kind of an interplay between the Board of Governors wavers and who qualifies for that and how much those fee increases will be offset by that and how much financial aid a student qualifies for,” Brown said.
Brown also said there is talk that the $36 fee increase will take effect on Jan. 1, 2012. This might affect the financial aid students receive.
“If you’re talking about the average student who may be on borderline or can’t get financial aid or has maxed-out their financial aid or has no other source then it will definitely impact it, because you’re talking about a significant increase from $26 to $36,” Brown said.
Brown said that there are talks from the State that the fee increase will be delayed until the next fiscal year but no decision has been made on that yet.
The money that students pay mainly goes to the state.
“We only retain two percent of the enrollment fees. It’s part of the overall calculation of State apportionment,” Brown said.
How they calculate it is a little complicated, but Brown explains.
“The formula for State apportionment is you have the gross apportionment number. We collect property taxes in the local area which gets subtracted from that gross apportionment number,” Brown said.
“We collect enrollment fees from the students less than two percent, that gets subtracted from the apportionment number, we get the net amount,” Brown said.
In short, the State collects the majority of the fees.
Brown said there is no doubt that it will affect students.
“There is going to be an impact on the students, which is unfortunate,” Brown said.
