With budget cuts looming and steep increases in tuition expected, knowing what you are paying for has become more and more important.

Tuition

The tuition that we as students pay is split into two groups initially, the money that stays on campus and the money that goes back to the state. About 75 percent of tuition stays on campus and of that 75 percent only 3.5 percent is specifically targeted at a program, student scholarships. The rest is added to other revenue streams, like student fees (lab/parking fees) and self-support programs, and used to run the college.

"Its like if you had three jobs the money from Taco Bell, Intell and Nike coming in and you then pay for rent, food etc." said Jennifer Howard, vice president of administrative services. EvCC had excess tuition money that it did not expect this year and they were able to use that money to help cover the 4.3 percent budget cut mandated by the state this year.

The money is also used to pay off debt the school has incurred. EvCC took out a loan to pay for all the new furniture in Gray Wolf Hall and uses this money to pay back that loan.

The tuition from the University Center is a little different than the tuition paid for regular classes on campus. In effect EvCC takes the tuition paid by the University Center students and passes it along to the schools providing the degrees at the University Center. So this money does not stay at the college but passes through the college.

On the other side Running Start students do not pay tuition but the college is paid from the public school system for that student. In essence the high school that sends the student to EvCC pays their tuition from their budget keeping the college from having to absorb the cost of that student.

S&A Fees

S&A fees go toward running the 250 programs that the student activities office runs. These programs range from associated student body administration, to concert and lecture series, to childcare and sports.

The SAO has a budge of about $1,000,000 dollars with $973,000 coming from student paid S&A fees.

The major money hogs in the SAO budget are inter collegiate sports at about $200,000, ASB student help (tutoring center) at about $100,000 and programming (concert series etc.) at about $90,000 respectively.

Only $500 is spent on legislative lobbying on behalf of the students.