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ACC board OKs tuition increase

ALPENA — The Alpena Community College Board of Trustees has approved a three percent tuition rate increase for the fiscal year 2019.

The increase was approved unanimously at the regular board meeting, Thursday.

“The college is always mindful on the cost of education and its impact on students. There are a number of scholarship and grant opportunities available to students to help defray the cost of education, including a number of scholarships given annually by the ACC Foundation. For fiscal year 2019, college officials are proposing to increase tuition approximately three percent; this modest increase is expected to offset the three percent decline in enrollment,” college President Don MacMaster said.

He added college officials have proposed to eliminate the cap on billable hours. The cap is now at 23 contact hours, to remove it would result in about 150 contact hours of additional revenue for the college. This was changed because how faculty were paid also changed.

In district tuition has changed from $129 per contact hour to $133. Out-of-district tuition per contact hour costs were changed from $203 to $210.

The board also approved the 2018-2019 proposed budget. The budget went up from $14,236,288 in 2017-2018 to $14,515,144 in 2018-2019.

The labor contract with the ACC Educational Support Professional Custodial/Maintenance MEA/NEA was also approved. The new contract will continue for four years until June 30, 2022.

The approval of the contract with President MacMaster was also approved. The contract is for three years.

“The first strength is for the accreditation. The second strength was the mutual gains bargaining process and the labor contracts achieved. The third thing we wanted to highlight was assimilating housing into the institution and what a seamless transition that seemed to be. We appreciate the campus safety we highlighted this year,” said Trustee Lisa Hilberg.

She added the next few years MacMaster’s focus will be on the millage and Van Lare Hall project.

“It’s been a great year and we felt like you balanced it all very well,” she said.

The administrative salary schedule was also approved by the board. The schedule will raise salary levels by two percent and a step increase if available. For the Vice Presidents this means salaries at the low end will be $99,76 and $130,887 at the upper end. For President MacMaster his salary will be at $134,334 at the low end and $167,027 at the upper end.

“What we’re seeking here is a step for each administrator plus a two percent increase, which is the same as faculty, ESPs and maintenance and custodians. All of the work groups will be treated equally on this. So there’s a step on the administrative pay scale plus two percent,” MacMaster said.

The board also approved the purchase of 50 Dell mini-tower computers and 30 Dell Inspiron laptops for a cost of $82,436.12. The need for the computers was identified by the Office of Information Technology which has a computer lab rotation schedule. The office notes the typical life for a desktop is five years and laptop is four years. The previous computers were purchased in 2013 and will now be rotated out to staff or sold to students for a minimal cost.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.

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