ECC votes not to raise tuition for second year in a row

For the second year in a row, Elgin Community College will not increase tuition for the upcoming school year.

College administrators cited the poor economy and number of unemployed people in the area as reasons to hold tuition steady at $91 per credit hour for the 2009-10 school year.

"Through targeted cost saving measures and careful monitoring of new and replacement positions, the administration will be able to meet all programmatic needs and add two new programs," officials wrote.

The freeze follows successive increases in the past decade.

Between the 1998-99 school year and the 2008-09 school year, tuition rose 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.

Harper College in Palatine charges in-district residents $90 per credit hour; Oakton Community College, $86; and McHenry County College, $80.

As the college begins work on the first phase of its $387 million master plan to update campus facilities by 2030, officials said they do plan to "fund the staffing, operations and maintenance of these new and expanded facilities with funds generated by increased tuition."

Tuition, officials said, will be raised up to $5 per credit hour per year for a period of three to four years, beginning no sooner than 2011.