Trustees approved a tuition and fee increase Tuesday that will take effect this summer and raise the cost of attending school to $89 from $81 per credit hour.
The increase means a full-time student taking 30 hours of classes will pay about $2,670 a year, an increase of about $240, according to a college official. The fee increase will raise $2.2 million a year in additional revenue for the college.
Trustees voted 5-2 in favor of the increase, with Matt Murphy and Richard Gillette opposing it. Gillette said there are people who cannot afford Harper’s tuition and won’t accept financial aid because they view it as charity.
“We talk about the increase in enrollment,” which has been 23 percent since 1998, Gillette said, “Enrollment would be higher without the tuition hikes.”Because of cutbacks in state aid and losses in revenue from property-tax disputes, the college needs to increase tuition or dip into its $28.4 million reserve, officials have said.
Robert Breuder, the college’s president, said that would be a mistake. The college spends about $75 million a year and would go through the reserves quickly if it capped tuition, he told trustees Tuesday.
