McHenry County Blog

The board packet of McHenry County College is posted on its web site, just as I wish every government’s were. (Special hint to the Crystal Lake City Council.)

In it is a recommendation that tuition be hiked $2 a credit hour.

Kathleen Plinski

“At present, other major revenue sources are constrained due to the continued effect of the tax cap, the uncertainty of the level of state funding, and current economic conditions,” writes Interim President Kathleen Plinske.

She notes the Consumer Price Index increased 2.5% last year and that

“A $2.00 increase from $80 to $82 is a 2.5% increase.”

An extra $264,000 would be generated from the fee increase.

The technology fee would remain at $9 per hour.

“Statewide,” she notes, “the range of tuition and fee rates for FY 2009 is a low of $67.00 to a high of $131.00 per credit hour, with the average rate being $88.95.”

This is the third part of my article on the MCC MAP meeting Tuesday night

The McHenry County College Promise, Todd McDonald told me, has already completely processed 650 high school graduates.

Another 170 or so await a report from the U.S. Department of Education to see if they are eligible for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This FAFSA process takes 3-4 weeks, so high school grads who haven’t started the process yet probably won’t get an answer in time for classes to start.

“What a nice problem to have,” Ally said.

Telling me that college enrollment was up 55%, MCC Board President George Lowe observed,

A woman asked if the extra students wouldn’t cost more money, perhaps, she suggested, more than the resulting extra tuition.

Ally made two responses that I caught:

• “Our goal should be to have fuller classes running.
• “We’ll run extra sections with adjunct faculty.”

Part-time teachers are a LOT cheaper that the full-timers.

Suggestions from the tables that I jotted down included “hybrid classes.” That was defined as half in the classroom, half online.

I think it was the same table that said this about state financial assistance:

“We were hopeful that state funding might increase…but not too hopeful.”

It’s good to have a sense of humor.

Taking photos while taking notes makes it difficult to link the two. The table with the sense of humor is either above (the last one to report) or below:

Lowe took the floor at the end of the meeting and pointed out that state financial assistance had gone down from 23% to 7.9% over the last sixteen years.

That 23% was less than what the committee that led the 1967 junior college referendum effort presented to taxpayers.

The state told the organizers that it would provide one-third.

With a ten-cent referendum rate request, the committee told voters that

• the state would pay one-third
• the students would pay one-third and
• the taxpayers would pay one-third.

Obviously, the state junior college promoters lied.

Note, however from the pie chart that while the taxpayers now pay 59.6%, almost twice what voters were told their share would be, students do not pay the 33% that was presented in 1967.

Tuition brings in 29.3% now.

Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.

Under my article about the free tuition that private donors are offering any graduate of a McHenry County College high school appeared the following comment from Lyle S:

“Maybe I’m just being an Ass. But I’m sort of upset about this program. I graduated high school in 1986. I struggled to pay for college with grants and loans for a year going to Illinois State. I came back home and worked to pay for school at MCC a couple of years. Ends were not meeting so I joined the Navy in 1990. I did so primarily for education benefits. Between the GI Bill and the Illinois Veterans benefits I got my Associates from MCC; as well as other classes at other schools.

“Now all graduating high school students get to go to MCC free (tuition)and all they need to do is 32 hours of community service each school year. I lived my “community” service 24/7, 365 days a year for 4 years to EARN my free tuition.

“Why the big handout? Is a college education the next entitlement??

“On top of everything else, I earned my high school (Marian Central) tuition by sweeping floors during the school year and working at the school during summers too.”

That reminded me so much of what my father-in-law Vince Giangrasso had told me about how he was able to attend DeLaSalle High School in Chicago.

He told me he paid for all but $90 of his tuition at DeLaSalle High School by doing janitorial work.

The first two years he swept the cafeteria. The students who bought their lunch sat on chairs, which had to be put on top of the tables. That was pretty easy, he told me.

Those who brought their lunches to school, as he did, sat on stools. They, too, had to be put on top of the tables, but this task was harder. Only so many stools to a table.

I asked him who mopped the floor, but he couldn’t remember anyone ever doing that.
Now, I have experience being a floor boy and cooks’ helper from one year my Oberlin College days. I also got experience broiling steaks on Saturday night—on both warm and chilling days. Sometimes I filled in for the pot washer down in the basement of the girls’ dorm.

In any event, my father-in-law moved on to bigger and better things in his junior year.

He got to sweep a hallway of one of the floors.

In his senior year, he was given “grace,” he told me.

“I didn’t have to do anything.”

He and my wife were Bridgeport residents, but he insisted that the kids speak English, rather than Bridgeportese.

There are no “dems” and “dos” in family conversations.

Under my article about the free tuition that private donors are offering any graduate of a McHenry County College high school appeared the following comment from Lyle S:

“Maybe I’m just being an Ass. But I’m sort of upset about this program. I graduated high school in 1986. I struggled to pay for college with grants and loans for a year going to Illinois State. I came back home and worked to pay for school at MCC a couple of years. Ends were not meeting so I joined the Navy in 1990. I did so primarily for education benefits. Between the GI Bill and the Illinois Veterans benefits I got my Associates from MCC; as well as other classes at other schools.

“Now all graduating high school students get to go to MCC free (tuition)and all they need to do is 32 hours of community service each school year. I lived my “community” service 24/7, 365 days a year for 4 years to EARN my free tuition.

“Why the big handout? Is a college education the next entitlement??

“On top of everything else, I earned my high school (Marian Central) tuition by sweeping floors during the school year and working at the school during summers too.”

That reminded me so much of what my father-in-law Vince Giangrasso had told me about how he was able to attend DeLaSalle High School in Chicago.

He told me he paid for all but $90 of his tuition at DeLaSalle High School by doing janitorial work.

The first two years he swept the cafeteria. The students who bought their lunch sat on chairs, which had to be put on top of the tables. That was pretty easy, he told me.

Those who brought their lunches to school, as he did, sat on stools. They, too, had to be put on top of the tables, but this task was harder. Only so many stools to a table.

I asked him who mopped the floor, but he couldn’t remember anyone ever doing that.
Now, I have experience being a floor boy and cooks’ helper from one year my Oberlin College days. I also got experience broiling steaks on Saturday night—on both warm and chilling days. Sometimes I filled in for the pot washer down in the basement of the girls’ dorm.

In any event, my father-in-law moved on to bigger and better things in his junior year.

He got to sweep a hallway of one of the floors.

In his senior year, he was given “grace,” he told me.

“I didn’t have to do anything.”

He and my wife were Bridgeport residents, but he insisted that the kids speak English, rather than Bridgeportese.

There are no “dems” and “dos” in family conversations.