College of DuPage may cut tuition rates

Tuition rates will drop at the College of DuPage starting with the spring 2015 term under a proposal announced Thursday by President Robert Breuder.

Breuder is recommending cutting tuition by $2 per credit hour, saving students who take 15 credit hours $30 a semester. The college's board of trustees is scheduled to vote on the proposal Aug. 25.

The recommendation comes after the board approved a $4 per credit hour increase earlier this year that boosted total tuition to $144 a credit hour for in-district students. That number will drop to $142 if the board adopts Breuder's proposal.

"As Dr. Breuder stated last night, we've had a very good fiscal year and we believe this is a risk financially that we can absorb to benefit the students," Vice President of Marketing and Communications Joseph Moore said Friday.

The proposal also would prohibit tuition increases for the entire following academic year unless financial problems arise before spring 2015.

Breuder's plan was presented during a tense board meeting in which both the president and some trustees came under fire from residents, teachers and students unhappy with a variety of issues, many of them money-based, at the school.