BEATRICE – Southeast Community College will hold tuition at the same level next year but increase student fees by $3 per credit hour.

The SCC Board of Governors approved that plan Tuesday, in Lincoln.  A second alternative under consideration was raising tuition by $1, with a $2 fee increase.   Lincoln Campus President Bev Cummins says the reaction from student senate organizations is largely supportive of the fee increase, because of the revenue derived being used to modernize campuses. 

The tuition and fees rates represent a combined 2.78% increase, keeping tuition at $102 per credit hour with a $9 student fee.  A student taking 30 semester hours would pay $3,330.  The rates apply to in-state and out-of-state students. The board also set room and board rates for the coming year.

Cummins says students see the more modern facilities as an incentive to go to Southeast and as a huge recruiting tool.

SCC has had several building projects going on, including new residence halls on the Beatrice and Milford Campus, a new Beatrice Campus dining hall and classroom building, a diesel technology center at the Milford Campus, and a new Health Sciences Addition at the Lincoln Campus.

Several additional building projects are on the drawing board in the coming years.

Meanwhile, an audited report on Southeast Community College enrollment shows the total number for 2019 at 9,676 students.   The college saw a 2.8% decline in enrollment…which officials say is consistent with numbers at other Nebraska community colleges.   This is the first year of a conversion to the semester system, at Southeast Community College.

Declining enrollment and changes in the industry have prompted Southeast Community College to end its Fire Protection Technology and Fire Emergency Service Management program.

The SCC Board took that step by passing a resolution Tuesday, at the Lincoln Campus.  The action becomes effective at the end of the 2019-20 college year. The move eliminates two full-time faculty positions.  

Officials earlier said few paid fire departments exist in rural areas of the college’s service region, and training is focusing more on emergency medical service, than fighting fires.

In the past few years, the fire protection program at the college had gone from about 24 students per instructor, to about 8 per instructor.  The average class size had dwindled to about five students. 

There are other firefighter training options, including the Nebraska Fire Marshal Office providing free training toward a fire protection certificate.