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Colorado Mountain College to increase tuition

College officials also approve budget for Steamboat building project

Jack Weinstein

— Colorado Mountain College said Monday they will increase tuition starting this summer to make up for lost revenue.

The college’s board of trustees approved a tuition inc­­rease Monday in Glenwood Spr­­­ings that will take effect for the 2011-12 fall semester. It will result in an annual increase of $120 per in-district student who takes 15 credit hours a semester.

In-district tuition will increase $4 — from $49 to $53 per credit hour. Out-of-district tuition will increase $7 — from $82 to $89 — per credit hour for in-state students and $23 — from $256 to $279 — per credit hour for out-of-state students. In addition to increasing tuition, college administrators will seek additional grant funding next school year.



During a conference call after the meeting, CMC President Stan Jensen said the increased tuition would generate about $1.4 million system-wide if the student body remains unchanged. He said it will help the college address projected lost revenue from property taxes and state funding.

He said CMC anticipates local property tax revenues to decrease 30 to 40 percent next year. And Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed a net funding decrease last week to the state’s higher education system of $28 million as part of his proposal to close a 2011-12 budget gap of about $1.1 billion.



“We have been planning on both of these,” Jensen said. “We know property values will go down. We know the state budget is still struggling. The overall impact to us is about $10 million down.”

He said because the tuition increase is expected to make up only a portion of CMC’s overall funding shortfall, the college will spend less on capital projects.

But Jensen said projects in progress, including a new administration and classroom building on the college’s Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs, would continue as planned.

To that end, the board of trustees approved Monday a construction budget not to exceed $22.9 million for the 58,000-square-foot geoexchange building on the Alpine Campus.

Jensen said the project’s costs are $14.5 million for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver-certified building; $3.6 million for “soft costs” such as engineering; $2.9 million for the Crawford Ave­­nue spur secondary access road; $750,000 for furniture, fixtures and equipment; $350,000 for on-site work such as new sprinklers; and $800,000 for a 250- to 290-seat auditorium.

He said CMC would start a local fundraising campaign in an effort to raise $2.5 million that would assist the college with the construction costs.

— To reach Jack Weinstein, call 970-871-4203 or e-mail jweinstein@SteamboatToday.com


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