By Tim Farley
News Editor
EL RENO – Receiving an education at Redlands Community College got a bit more expensive after the RCC Board of Regents approved a 5 percent tuition increase.
The hike pushed the credit hour cost from $147.47 to $154.84, according to Jena Marr, executive vice president of finance and campus administration.
“We’ve had continued cuts (from the state legislature) the last five years and we had to do something to offset that,” she said. “We don’t think it’s enough of an increase to hurt enrollment.”
RCC administrators held an open student forum in November to discuss potential increases in student fees and tuition, but no students attended. Redlands has lost $4.2 million in state aid since 2015.
“There’s no way we’ll ever get all of that back,” Marr said. “We don’t want to put what happened at the state legislature on the backs of our students.”
The 5 percent tuition increase approved during the regents meeting last week will generate an estimated $200,000 for the school.
Prior to the tuition hike, Redlands ranked in the middle of Oklahoma’s two-year colleges for educational costs.
Redlands regents approved a 6 percent tuition increase last year but kept the tuition cost flat the two previous years.
Rowe and Marr said they don’t expect much push back from students.
“We really don’t hear much grumbling from them,” Rowe said. “The increase is really slight when we look at the overall scheme of things. It’s still relatively affordable.
