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"Truth in Tuition" Illinois' novel answer to skyrocketing rates
		(Photo by Elaine Shay for CrossTalk) At the Kentucky School of Craft, in Hindman, William Walker, 70, demonstrates his skill with a lathe. The state's patchwork of two-year community colleges and technical schools was recently transformed into the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. ( more) News "Truth in Tuition" Illinois' novel answer to skyrocketing rates In Katrina's Wake Mississippi's coastal community colleges struggle to rebound from disaster Colorado On the Edge Years of state funding cuts put higher education in a precarious position Kentucky's Rocky Road Recent reform legislation produces results, but faces tough challenges News From The Center   -Recent National    Center Reports   -New Center    Associates   -Wingspread    Conference   -Senior Fellow Other Voices The Remediation Debate Are we serving the needs of underprepared college students? Killing Academic Freedom Softly The muzzling of professors who do not enjoy the luxury of tenure Nine Principles Serving the public good in a time of changing governance models for colleges and universities
By Susan C. Thomson Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Colleen and Mark Schloemann marveled at how much more stuff it took to send their first-born, Greta, off to college this fall than they had required a generation ago. The computer! The refrigerator! The money! Greta is a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the going tuition for her class is $7,042. "It makes my stomach hurt to think how we're going to afford it," her mother said, noting that as social workers she and her husband "don't have a big income."   Mark and Colleen Schloemann are pleased that daughter Greta, a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will pay the same tuition for four years. Others dislike the policy. (Photo by Larry Evans, Black Star, for CrossTalk)   The Schloemanns, of downstate Herrin, have one reason to take heart: If Greta graduates in four years, her tuition bills will never rise. For her and the university's other in-state freshmen, the first-year rate is nailed down for the next three years as well. The same goes at Illinois' 11 other public university campuses, all now in their second year of guaranteeing incoming Illinois undergraduates the same tuition for four straight years, or more for bachelors degrees that take full-time students longer to complete. (continue)
In Katrina's Wake Mississippi's coastal community colleges struggle to rebound from disaster
By Kathy Witkowsky Perkinston, Mississippi On an unseasonably cool Thursday evening in late September, hundreds of spectators seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief as they crowded into the stadium at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College's Perkinston campus to watch the school's first football game of the season. The match-up, between the Gulf Coast Bulldogs and one of their biggest rivals, the Wildcats of Jones County Junior College, was to have been the season's fourth contest. But the three previous games had to be cancelled or rescheduled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which left thousands either homeless or jobless or both.   Weary faculty and staff members attend a meeting at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College one week after Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by Jackson Hill, Black Star, for CrossTalk)   The worst natural disaster in the nation's history also caused tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to the state's south Mississippi community colleges, including between $15 million and $20 million at Gulf Coast; between $3 million and $5 million at Jones County Junior College; and a whopping $50 million worth at nearby Pearl River Community College. Together, the three schools enroll more than 16,000 students at ten different sites throughout south Mississippi. (continue)
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