SFCC Tuition To Increase

SEDALIA—The State Fair Community College Board of Trustees Tuesday approved modest increases in tuition rates for the 2015-2016 academic year, which includes fall, spring and summer semesters.

Tuition per credit hour will increase $2 for in-district students to $100, $3 for out-of-district students to $140, $2 for out-of state students to $200, and $5 for international students to $240. All active-duty military personnel, Reserve, National Guard members, and veterans and their dependents will qualify for in-district tuition. Tuition for dual credit courses remains unchanged at $76 per credit hour. 

SFCC President Dr. Joanna Anderson said the majority of Missouri colleges are raising tuition because of ongoing limited revenue from state funding.

“These are modest increases, and the board did not increase in-district tuition last year,” she said.

Board president Gary Noland said trustees face any tuition increase with trepidation.

“I’ve been here a long time, and we have always focused on providing high-quality, low-cost education for our students,” he said. “However, from time to time, tuition increases become necessary due to state funding concerns. In spite of that, our focus will not change.”

The board also approved a $10 per credit hour technology fee effective this fall to help support ongoing maintenance of the college’s comprehensive network infrastructure, a move already taken by most colleges, said Anderson.

“Technology is a key component of all programs and services at SFCC,” said Anderson. “It allows us to support teaching and learning, student success and efficiency in our administrative operations. Right now we have about 1,500 devices across all our campuses, 1,200 of which are computers.”

Increased technology uses at SFCC include:

• Expansion of the college’s Learning Management System to every course, instead of just online classes;
• Expanded Internet resources and bandwidth for easier viewing of digital media and videos for classroom instruction;
• Expanded technology at new or expanded campus locations in Clinton, Boonville and Eldon, which added 200 new devices (PCs, printers, projectors) to the network ensuring that the classroom technology experience is the same at all campus locations;
• Continuous upgrades in classroom technology at all campuses, such a audio/visual and full multimedia devices like SMART Boards©, computers, projectors, and sound systems; 
• Mobile device access to the network on all campuses;
• Implementation of SFCC Alert, an emergency notification system.

The board approved the increases at its monthly meeting.