College of DuPage votes to cut tuition next spring

College of DuPage trustees have voted to cut tuition by $4 per credit hour beginning with the spring 2015 semester — just months after approving a $4 increase that's taking effect this fall.

The tuition cuts will apply to both in-district and out-of-district students. Starting next spring, tuition for in-district students will drop from $144 per credit hour back to the $140 they were paying before the board approved the increase.

Officials say the college will lose about $1.27 million in fiscal 2015 as a result of the cuts and then $2.2 million a year thereafter.

When the board approved the $4 tuition increase in February, COD President Robert Breuder said it was necessary to close the gap between the school's revenues and expenditures.

In July, however, Breuder told trustees the college's financial outlook was improving and recommended they cut tuition by $2 per credit hour beginning next spring.

On Thursday, Trustee Kim Savage proposed slicing tuition by $4 next spring, effectively eliminating this year's increase, and the board unanimously agreed.

“I would like to say that this is an important thing to do for our community,” Vice Chairman Kathy Hamilton said in supporting Savage's proposal. “We should not have increased it to begin with by $4.”

Despite the unanimous vote, not everyone on the board was happy with how the decision was made. Trustee Allison O'Donnell, for example, said she would have liked advance notice of the $4 proposal instead of learning about it at the meeting.