The Yavapai College Governing Board Tuesday boosted tuition by $3 a credit hour for the fall semester.
Board Chairman Ray Sigafoos said the college needs the increase from $49 a credit hour to $52 to cover increasing costs and a decrease in state spending.
"I'm going to agree with this, but I think we should consider raising it by $4, one extra dollar," Sigafoos said. "This plan lets us break even, but it doesn't give us any 'cushion' for future budget deficiencies."
After discussing the possibility of an additional dollar increase at length, the board agreed to stay with the original $3 plan, and to deal with future budget problems as they arise.
Business Computer Science division professor Terry Lovell gave a presentation on the "actual cost of attending Yavapai College," including textbooks and lab fees in addition to the basic cost per credit hour. Some classes have an actual cost of more than $1,000.
"Textbooks are 15th century technology; we need to step into the 21st century," Lovell said. "If we use (online textbooks) we can save up to 50 percent, and they can update as new information comes, instead of needing to replace them."
Lovell said his online business and statistics courses have been successful using the "Tegrity" program, an online educational tool that lets him to offer texts and quizzes to the students with Internet access.
"Normally with a test, if they get an answer wrong, we'd write a note saying 'see page 216,'" Lovell said. "With this program, we can link them directly to the page. It lets students learn much more much faster. The only downside is, those students who don't have high-speed Internet can't access as much information."
