CSM Tuition Likely to Rise With Crunch In Funding

Tuition at the College of Southern Maryland will rise in the coming academic year, although officials said they don't know how much.

The projected increase is based on the likelihood of getting no additional funding from the state or the three counties in Southern Maryland, said Bradley Gottfried, president of the college, which has campuses in Prince Frederick, Leonardtown and La Plata.

"My gut is . . . [the tuition increase] could be as little as 1 percent and could be as high as 5 percent," said Gottfried, who spoke to the Calvert Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Gottfried said he fears having to turn potential students away if there's not enough funding for classes and programs. Tuition is about $3,200 a year for a full-time student. At the University of Maryland at College Park, tuition is about $6,000.

"At one time, [CSM tuition] was probably closer to one-third" of the University of Maryland's, Gottfried said. For the past three years, however, the state has frozen tuition at its college and universities and is proposing to do so next year.

The original model for covering the costs of one CSM student's education had the state, county and students splitting it evenly. The state pays about 22 percent, the county, 36 percent, and students, 42 percent, Gottfried said.

As state funding is squeezed, "students are asked to shoulder more of the burden," Gottfried said.

Securing funding from local governments apparently won't be assured, either. The college had asked Calvert officials for a 5.6 percent increase over last year's funding of $2.7 million. But commissioners' President Wilson H. Parran (D-Huntingtown) said Tuesday that the board can't fully meet that request.

Patrice Robinson, a 21 year-old student at CSM's Prince Frederick campus, told commissioners Tuesday that she would like to double up on her classes and take summer courses to get an associate's degree in criminal justice sooner. But she said she can't afford to.

CSM officials said they expect an influx of students who can't afford a four-year university and others who want to improve their professional skills to keep their jobs or advance.

"We believe enrollment will continue to grow quite dramatically over the next year or two," Gottfried said. "We need additional classes to accommodate this increased demand."

Fall enrollment at the three CSM campuses was more than 8,260, a nearly 7 percent increase over the previous year's student body, according to a report from the college. Many classes are held at night in high schools. But day students need more space, Gottfried said. A new building planned for the Prince Frederick campus has been delayed until fiscal 2011 because of state budget problems.

New initiatives, such as a partnership with Constellation Energy and the Nuclear Energy Institute to create a degree program in industrial maintenance and a Center for Energy Education, are being partially funded through grants and company donations.