The $3.26 million Genesee Community College budget received unanimous County Legislature support tonight.
The spending plan includes a commitment from the county for an additional $50,000 in spending in 2010, even though the county has not yet begun work on the 2010 budget.
"Higher education, with the way the economy is, is very important to people who need help in getting a job or keeping a job," said Ed DeJaneiro.
Both County Manager Jay Gsell and Legislator Charles Zambito noted that the county's contribution to GCC is among the lowest of any county in the state to a community college, as a percentage of the college budget. Gsell also said after the meeting that GCC's students get one of the more affordable college educations in the state because GCC's coverage area is bigger than just one county.
The county's contribution to the spending plan will be $1,936,374.
Zambito spoke highly of GCC's efforts.
"Enrollment is the highest it's ever been and it's expected to be higher next year," Zambito said. "At a time when every other college is raising tuition, GCC is making a concerted effort not to increase tuition."
Students will pay $1,700 per semester in the coming academic year, or $140 per credit hour for part-time students.
I'm the Student Government
I'm the Student Government Vice President at Genesee Community College. Myself and a group of other Student Government members created the activity fee budget, which makes up $321,600 of this total. We raised the activity fee so that students at Genesee can enjoy even more great events than the 200 we programmed last year.
Thanks for the info, David.
Thanks for the info, David.
Not that I like raising
Not that I like raising tuition anymore than I like rasing taxes, but why shouldn't students pay more for the services they are getting instead of the county?
Of course, I believe in
Of course, I believe in self-reliance and less government, but with education, you can at least make the cause of mutual self-reciprocity and enlightened self-interest properly understood (to paraphrase de Tocqueville), that students who benefit from a lower-cost education will become more productive members of society and greater contributors to the common good.
That would be a question for
That would be a question for the Board of Trustees. Student Government and the mentioned activity fee committee made the request to increase the activity fee for dozens of reasons. Anything outside of that, we can't really comment because we don't really know.
Howard, How many of those
Howard, How many of those students stay local though?
How many come here who
How many come here who benefited from inexpensive education elsewhere?
Not as many who are exported
Not as many who are exported I am afraid. I really don't know the numbers though
Another way to look at it --
Another way to look at it -- kids are more likely to stay if they feel there is opportunity, and they're going to have more opportunities with a local education than being forced to go elsewhere for something they could afford.
One reason GCC tuitions are so low is the number of people who come here from out of the area for an affordable education.
And as much as I am all about local, I'm also mindful that it is still just one world -- educated people make better citizens everywhere.
All good points but how many
All good points but how many students actually graduate and if GCC is low cost how come so many people have a large amount of student loan debt ? I know for a fact that most local or non local graduates are forced to seek employment elsewhere coz the " do you want fries with that" job doesnt pay the bills and student loans. I am not disagreeing with the tuition being low but you are not addressing the debt that comes along with it.
In May of this year, 252
In May of this year, 252 students graduated from Genesee. In Genesee's first year only 45 students graduated. Also, this year we had our 20,000th graduate walk across the stage.
People have such a large amount of student loan debt because TAP and PEL are not covering enough for some people. However, this generally becomes a problem after GCC once people have transferred to another institution.
How successful are GCC's students in getting their desired careers? Well, that is a tough question to answer. Colleges like to throw around the number 80% as a contingent statistic for that. Whether or not this is accurate is anyone's guess. On the other hand, I've never heard anyone complain that their GCC education wasn't worth it.