BLINN COLLEGE BOARD APPROVES TUITION ADJUSTMENT FOR DUAL CREDIT STUDENTS
The Blinn College Board of Trustees approved a tuition adjustment to $36 and a $14 general fee per credit hour that was previously waived for Washington County dual credit students in their Tuesday night meeting.
This fall, the College’s in-district Dual Credit Program operated at a deficit of $74,000 for the semester. The tuition change is expected to generate approximately $51,400, allowing the College to share in the cost and better invest high school students in their dual credit coursework.
A regular Blinn College student who lives in the District pays $45 tuition and $44 in fees, for a total of $89 per semester hour. A three-hour course would be $267.00
In other business, Blinn raised its parking fee to $200 for an academic year, $125 for the spring and summer and $75 for a single semester. For motorcycles, permits are $100 for the academic year and $40 per semester. The additional funds be applied toward improving traffic flow and student parking services.
Blinn College awarded a $1.37 million construction contract to R.M. Dudley Construction Company, Inc. to prepare its newly leased space at the Tejas Center in Bryan as the College prepares to move its student services off campus.
The Blinn Board of Trustees approved leasing the space located at 3125 South Texas Avenue in October, and the 22,430 square-foot facility will be renovated to accommodate Bryan campus student support services such as enrollment services, admissions and records, financial aid and testing. Blinn anticipates moving personnel into the space in mid-March.
The move would free space on the Bryan campus, which announced an enrollment of 13,587 students this Fall – a 6.4 percent increase over last year. Blinn’s master planning efforts with various consultants project that its Brazos County campuses could see enrollment exceed 15,000 by 2017 and approach 20,000 by 2025. The board continues to consider long-term Brazos County property options.
The company was previously contracted to construct the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center on the Blinn – Brenham campus and constructed additional parking and office space on the Bryan campus this summer.
The board authorized the issuance and sale of $10 million of Washington County Junior College District Combined Fee Revenue Bonds, Series 2014, to fund the Tejas Center renovation, Bryan campus parking improvements, Bryan campus food service and student service upgrades and Bryan campus Administration Building renovations to provide more faculty offices and other projects.
The Board of Trustees has decided to table a decision on hiring an Executive Search Firm to replace outgoing president Dr. Harold Nolte, who resigned in September.
The Board was presented with six different firms to fill the role Tuesday night; four were excluded originally, but the Board felt they did not have the enough information to make a decision at that time, and requested information on the top four to consider before making an informed decision. It was decided that another session would be called when a final decision was made.