The Fort Lewis College Board of Trustees on Friday approved an 8.6 percent tuition increase for resident students, a $53.6-million budget for the next fiscal year and the agreement to take over management of the Old Fort Lewis campus in Hesperus.
Tuition for full-time resident students will increase from $5,856 to $6,360 annually.
There will be no increase in the $16,072 nonresident tuition for the seventh consecutive year, a decision associated more with the political climate in the Colorado General Assembly than the trustees’ inclinations. Steve Schwartz, the college’s vice president for finance and administration, told the board at its meeting in April that the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee strongly discouraged an increase in the nonresident tuition. The state reimburses FLC for Native American students who qualify for the tuition waiver.
About 1,200 Native American students qualify for the waiver, with 80 percent of those students coming from out of state. That more than doubles how much the state has to pay for those students compared with in-state Native American students. About 55 percent of out-of-state students at the school are Native American, said Michele Peterson, associate vice president for finance and administration.
While the state could not stop the college from raising nonresident tuition, it could penalize the college by decreasing other funding it allocates to FLC, Schwartz said.
“Fort Lewis is based on educating Native American students no matter where they come from,” Board President Karen Wilde said at the April meeting. “The state needs to look at that sacred trust in the first place, the state needs to honor it and shouldn’t paint us into a corner to try to manage our expenses.”
Traditionally, Schwartz and FLC President Dene Thomas have traveled to Denver to meet with the budget committee and legislators. That may need to change, Trustee Steve Short said.
“At some point, we have to figure out how to address nonresident tuition with the state and not just accept that they don’t want a raise,” he said. “This may require a strategy where the trustees figure more into the discussion than we have traditionally and not have it just be Dene and Steve. Every other state institution shows an increase for nonresident tuition except Fort Lewis, which has a big fat zero. That is so unfair and so unrealistic.”
The trustees approved a $53.6 million budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The budget includes raises for faculty and exempt staff of 1.5 percent.
“We just recently received word from the state that some classified positions, including police and custodial, will get a 2 percent raise,” Schwartz said. “It’s really bizarre they would add that after the Long Bill was signed because it will impact a lot of agencies.”
For FLC, that will affect about 30 employees, 25 percent of the college’s classified staff. About 80 percent of Adams State College’s classified staff fall under the salary-increase provisions, and the school will have to make budget cuts because of it, Schwartz said.
After months of discussion, the trustees approved the Beneficiary Use Agreement to take over complete management of the Old Fort Lewis campus. The college will no longer share responsibilities and income with the Colorado State Land Board. Control of the property will provide opportunities for further academic and agricultural research and allow the college to increase profits from activities.
While the agreement will go into effect as soon as Thomas and a representative for the land board sign it, any existing leases on the property will continue until June 30, 2017.
In a final piece of financial business, the board approved a three-year contract extension for Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Morris to June 30, 2020. The contract was scheduled to end June 30, 2017.
abutler@durangoherald.com