By Howard Packowitz

NORMAL – Students at Heartland Community College will pay more for tuition next school year to help the college keep up with expenses.

The Board of Trustees Tuesday night voted unanimously for an $8 per credit hour tuition hike, offset by a $3 reduction in student fees.

Tuition and fees will rise to $158 dollars per credit hour, from $153, a 3.3 percent increase that will generate $500,000 in revenue for the district, according to Heartland Vice President of Business Services, Doug Minter.

Tuition has risen at Heartland every year since 2015. Minter said students prefer modest annual increases instead of a large one every few years.

“Students have communicated to us that if there are going to be increases, they’d rather they were smaller increases more frequently than getting hit with a big increase,” said Minter.

“Of course, the best answer of all is no increase,” Minter said.

Minter said one of the ways to curb future tuition hikes is to develop strategies for increasing Heartland’s enrollment by developing programs to meet students’s needs.

“We know there are some markets that we are not adequately reaching, and so that would be an opportunity to increase enrollments,” said Minter.

He said Heartland remains an attractive and affordable option for college students. Minter said the cost to attend Heartland is the 11th highest among Illinois’ 39 community college districts.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]