ECC won't raise tuition

For the first time in more than a decade, Elgin Community College officials this week opted not to increase tuition for the upcoming school year.

Trustees said ECC would maintain tuition at $91 per credit hour for the 2008-09 school year.

Administrators recommended the freeze after reviewing revenue projections through 2011, ECC officials said.

A number of campus initiatives this year have helped rein in spending, said Carole Robertson, vice president of administration and finance.

Staff attrition and retirement allowed ECC to save some money on personnel costs, Robertson said, and a better bidding system has saved money on equipment and supplies.

The freeze follows successive tuition hikes that trustees instituted after voters rejected the college's 2006 bid for a 5-cent tax-rate increase.

The day after that ballot measure failed, trustees increased tuition by $9 per semester credit hour.

"We've held the line on expenses for existing programs," Robertson said, "but program growth won't be as quick as it could have been if we were successful in referendum."

Tuition had been rising steadily since long before the failed tax-rate increase.

Between the 1998-99 school year and the 2007-08 school year, tuition more than doubled, from $43 per semester credit hour to the current rate of $91.

Tuition per credit hour was $56 in 2002-03, $62 in 2003-04, $70 in 2004-05, $75 in 2005-06 and $84 in 2006-07.

ECC tuition is at the middle of the pack of local community colleges.

College of DuPage charges $103 per credit hour, Harper College charges $99, McHenry County College charges $82, and Waubonsee and Kishwaukee community colleges charge $75.