Daytona State College’s Board of Trustees approved an $84.3 million budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year while holding the line on raising tuition for what will be the eighth year in row.
The new budget marks a $1.3 million increase from last year thanks to fewer cuts from the Legislature in the upcoming state budget.
“I just want to say how proud I am that once again we can fit it into our budget to not only be a first-class, quality educational institute, but we can hold down the cost for our community and it should be a headline in the newspaper,” DSC trustee Mary Ann Haas said. “Where else are you going to find something that cost the same amount eight years ago as it does today?”
Trustee Anne Patterson commended DSC for not only keeping the cost of tuition at bay but instructional materials as well. She thanked DSC instructors who took the time to write their own textbooks or post supplemental videos online to help students save on costs.
In holding the line on tuition, trustees also left student fees flat, even decreasing access fees, which cover the cost of DSC's student portal and student ID's, by nearly 13 percent from the last fiscal year.
However, separately, the board voted to raise some individual lab fees – in some cases by more than $100. DSC has roughly 435 courses with lab fees. Of those, nine fees were deleted, 15 were decreased, 46 were increased and 23 new fees were created, a DSC document says.
At $64.1 million, staffing costs composed about three-quarters of DSC’s budget. That's a significant expense and one that last year, in light of budget cuts, prompted DSC President Tom LoBasso to freeze 25 positions in an effort to reduce the college's operating costs.
Five of those positions now have been unfrozen because the Legislature restored additional funding to the college, said Erik D’Aquino, DSC's vice president for enrollment management.
DSC also wrote off more than $876,000 or about 3 percent of uncollected student debts. That figure is low compared with the 2016 national student loan default rate of more than 11 percent, trustee Garry Lubi said.
A big part of the write-off comes from Federal Pell Grants, which DSC – not its students – must pay back to the government if students drop out of classes before completing 60 percent of the course, LoBasso said.
“We pay it back and we go after the students. And that’s the only way we can do it,” LoBasso said.
In related news, Gov. Rick Scott nominated Patterson and Lubi for reappointment on DSC’s board of trustees for another four years. Patterson and Lubi began their first terms at DSC in September of 2014.
“Governor Scott interviews personally every person that is appointed by him to any gubernatorial board,” Patterson said. “He does at least a phone interview, and you’re sort of expecting the second time around ... to be a little easier than the first time and it was not.”