Life after C brings more profs, tuition cap

By Brad Riggin
rigginb@mscd.edu

 

Colorado voters said yes to Referendum C last week, warding off significant tuition increases for Metro students.

Students faced tuition increases of up to 51 percent if the referendum failed.

The Colorado Commission on Higher Education announced Nov. 7 that it approved a plan to cap tuition increases at the state's public colleges and universities at 2.5 percent. The plan asks the legislature to increase higher education funds by $65 million next year.

The passage of Referendum C allows the state legislature to keep an estimated $3.7 billion in tax revenues over the next five years, a portion of which will go to higher education.

The approval of Referendum C also allows Metro President Stephen Jordan to begin implementation of his three-phase plan to improve the college.

The first phase gives adjunct faculty at Metro a pay raise from $788 per credit hour to $960 per credit hour. It also calls for 60 new tenured and tenure-track full-time faculty positions. Jordan said in a letter posted on MetroConnect last week, that this is the first step in restoring Metro's full-time tenured faculty to acceptable levels.

His plan would raise the number of full-time faculty at Metro from 38 percent to roughly 60 percent.

"I believe these steps, among others, are crucial to the college's long-term goal of pre-eminence in public baccalaureate higher education," Jordan said in the letter.

Jordan said he hopes to have all 60 positions filled by the end of Fall 2006, Metro spokeswoman Cathy Lucas said.

Lucas said that, as part of Jordan's plan, Metro will begin purchasing $3 million in equipment and technology for academic programs. The college will also purchase $500,000 in equipment for administrative departments and spend another $500,000 to renovate and remodel academic departments. The first floor of Central Classroom will also be remodeled at a cost of $500,000.

Referendum D failed at the polls, possibly stripping some of the funds higher education would have received under Referendum C.

Bruce Benson, chair of the Metro Board of Trustees and co-chair of the pro-Referendum C campaign, said there's no reason to worry about D.

"It was critically important for C to pass," Benson said. "We'll get by without D."

Referendum D would have allowed the state to borrow $2.1 billion against the money provided through Referendum C. That money would have gone toward construction for schools and roads and to help fund police and firefighters' pensions.

The special interests that would have received Referendum D money will still try to get funds from the legislature, Benson said.

"We didn't get that D money and everybody is going to be down there (at the legislature) with special interests, jockeying for that money," Benson said. "Will we get what we were expecting for C? I don't know."

Despite the funds that will come from Referendum C, Metro faces a problem of overcrowding, which could translate to significant construction costs if the college were to expand in order to accommodate a growing student body, Benson said.

"We are overcrowded, but I think Steve Jordan is on target when he talks about moving things off campus," Benson said.

Part of Jordan's plan to deal with overcrowding is to expand Metro to various community college campuses throughout the state.

Jordan has been meeting with Nancy McCallin, president of Colorado's community college system, to work out a plan.

"They are working together to develop a well-defined partnership and collaboration," Lucas said.

The plan will ease overcrowding at Metro by allowing students at state community colleges to get a four-year degree from Metro without leaving the original campus.

"It's a way to reach out to a student at Northeastern Community College in Sterling, who could complete a four-year degree without leaving their community to finish the final two years at Metro," Lucas said.

Once the plan is complete it will need to be approved by the CCHE to get College Opportunity Fund authorization, Lucas said.