The slow but steady increase in
tuition at Bucks is continuing,
with the Board of Trustees
recently approving a $4 increase
per credit in tuition with a $3 per
credit hike for technology support
fees.
The small jumps in tuition
have been occurring like clockwork
for nearly 10 years, with
students hearing varying reasons
for paying more and more.
Since the passage of a state legislature
funding agreement, Act
46, which altered the way
Pennsylvania’s 14 community
colleges receive funding, Bucks
has been facing debt and the students
are left to pick up the slack.
In 2003, the Centurion reported
a $4 per credit increase in
tuition. From 2004-2006, tuition
jumped $4 per credit. Tuition
was upped $1 in 2007, and last
year the board voted to increase
tuition by $2 per credit.
Bucks President Dr. James
Linksz has said he would rather
see small annual increases in
tuition rather than loftier
increases every few years.
And it doesn’t look like the
annual tuition hikes are going to
stop any time soon. The student
population at Bucks continues to
grow. Dean of Students Karen
Dawkins said enrollment on all
three Bucks campuses for fulland
part-time students is up.
Online learning courses are also
seeing increased numbers of students.
New-student enrollment rose
3.5 percent at the Newtown campus,
3.3 percent at the upper
county campus and a whopping
18.8 percent at the lower Bucks
campus. E-learning has 376 more
students this semester compared
to the spring 2008 semester.
“These are tough economic
times,” said Dawkins after the
board meeting. “We are not getting
the same support from the
state and county and, unfortunately, the burden falls on the students
to make that up until the government
makes it possible for
[Bucks to receive] additional funding.”
With such a dramatic rise in student
population, the expansion of
Bucks satellite campuses and ongoing
construction at the Newtown
campus, it’s no surprise that
increased funding is necessary.
But these are tough economic
times. Can Bucks students keep
shelling out more and more money
each year?
Sports management major Luke
Dabrowski, 19, said, “I think that’s
messed up and ridiculous because
it’s hard for people like me who pay
for college themselves.”
Chris Shaffer, 21, of Chalfont is
also a sports management major at
Bucks and is returning in the fall
2009 semester. “It’s a lot of money
to pay back,” he said of students
who take out loans in order to go to
college.
“It’s a community college and a
lot of people that come here don’t
know what their major is,” said 23-
year-old Mike Spacola. “People
come who are still finding their
way.”