During Salt Lake Community College’s annual Truth in Tuition event, held on March 2, the college announced there would be no increase in tuition for the 2023-24 academic year.
Brett Perozzi, interim vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, said the decision comes due to directives against increase in tuition this year from the governor, state legislature and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). SLCC tuition currently sits at $1,888 per semester for full-time, resident students.
“You will see no decrease in the educational quality at [SLCC] because we are not raising tuition,” Perozzi told the event’s audience.
In addition to the point of tuition, USHE determined no increases to general student fees. SLCC, however, recommended one change: A combining of the student activities and community service fees, dubbed the student engagement fee.
For Salt Lake Technical College, course fees won’t increase, and 39 courses in art, information systems and interior design will freeze all fees for the upcoming academic year.
USHE also instructed all technical colleges to incorporate a new credit model that aligns with other USHE tech colleges. The change involves moving away from clock hours, the total number of hours a student spends attending class or instructional activities, and toward a $90 credit hour rate.
The old model, 900 clock hours, costs $2,200 at a rate of $2.45 per clock hour, whereas the new model costs $2,160 under 24 tech credits. One difference is with the professional truck driving program, where – for alignment purposes and to offset the costs of the program – the college is recommending a $100 per credit differential cost.
Although Perozzi has only been with SLCC for one month, he said he’s learned that the ethos of the college is keeping tuition and fees low for students.
“I think that’s what state education should be,” he told the audience, “and you’re at an institution that takes that really seriously.”
