On April 4, the Lane Community College Board of Education voted to raise tuition by 5%. An initial vote to raise tuition was voted down. However, after a condition was added that would allow the board to reconsider the issue if more state funding was provided in the next several months, the tuition hike passed by a 4-3 vote.

LCC chairwoman Rosie Pryor said the motion was passed following a “very robust discussion” on the impacts of the tuition increase as well as the college’s fiscal state.

During the public meeting, Adrienne Mitchell, president of the Lane Community College Education Association, brought the board’s attention to LCC’s financial woes, including a $25 million debt held by LCC. Mitchell said this significantly impacts tuition rates as well as negatively impacts the viability ratio, which will make it harder for LCC to accrue more debt if necessary.

Pryor said the tuition raise is unfortunate. She said the board has two choices when creating the balanced budget mandated by the state of Oregon: raise revenue or cut expenses. “And administration has consistently recommended increases in tuition,” she said.

LCC tuition hikes are not a new financial challenge for students. In the last 10 years, between the 2012-13 and 2022-23 fiscal years, tuition rates have been raised by nearly 50%, going from $90 per credit to over $132 per credit. This has coincided with a steady decline in enrollment. 

During the 2012-13 year, regular student enrollment was at a historic high due to the 2008 recession, over 18,000. Enrollment steadily declined to roughly 11,000 by 2020 and barely 6,000 in 2022. LCC’s enrollment experienced its first growth in over a decade during the 22–23 school year as enrollment grew to roughly 8,500, confirmed LCC’s External Affairs Director Brett Rowlett.

The overall decline in enrollment is likely a contributing factor in tuition increases, as the college wants to avoid cutting services, according to student demographic data gathered by LCC.

KLCC reported that the tuition increase had the support of LCC’s Student Government Association. However, Nikhar Ramlakhan, president of SGA, said this is a mischaracterization. The article now has an editor’s note saying SGA does not support the increase.

Ramlakhan said that he and other SGA members present at the meeting were caught off guard by the 5% hike. “We recommend an increase in tuition depending on state funding. Those recommendations are 2% and 3.5%, respectively,” he said. 

Ramlakhan said that the primary objective of SGA is to advocate for student needs and that the tuition raise would make higher education less affordable for Lane’s low-income students, who are living paycheck to paycheck.

“For me, it’s more of a problem for the state itself,” Ramlakhan said. “And the government is not actually prioritizing higher education.” Pryor said LCC is not optimistic that there will be additional funding from the state.

LCC students and faculty are not alone in their belief that the state is not providing enough support for higher education. Public colleges and universities across Oregon are lobbying the state for more funding.

Oregon ranks 45th in the nation in per-student state funding of public universities.

Ramalakhan asks who is to blame for rising tuition rates: “Is it the colleges themselves? Or is it actually the state funding that’s not coming out the way it should? More often than not, it’s the state.”