DEARBORN – Henry Ford Community College (HFCC) recently announced that it would be hiking tuition rates by seven percent next year in order to cut costs on a $7.5 million deficit. A final decision is expected to be made at an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting. 

Under the proposed increase, tuition for district residents is expected to climb from $75 to $82 per credit hour. Non-residents would also see a rise from $135 to $142, while out-of-state and international students would see a hike up to $147 per credit hour, up from the current $140.

Board members are claiming too many students are misusing federal loans, as not all of them end up attending classes for loans they were covered for, or even worse, end up failing the class. Twenty percent of tuition revenue is expected be returned next year amounting to $9.5 million to the federal government from just HFCC alone. HFCC says they are trying to figure out a system that would track and limit the number of students who are abusing their pell grants. 

But one Board member who is against the increase of tuition is Trustee Mary Lane. She claims that HFCC faculty are paid more than their peers at comparable community colleges in Lansing and Washtenaw and the college should look into cutting back on faculty spending.