District expects $3 million loss in state appropriations, vice chancellor said.

State appropriations are expected to drop $3 million in revenue because of a significant decrease in contact hours for the spring.

Diane Snyder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, told trustees Saturday at a budget retreat in the library at Northeast Lakeview College that she calculated the $3 million loss based on a notification received from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board based on contact hours for spring 2011.

“We got a preliminary notification from the (Texas Higher Education) Coordinating Board of our fiscal year 13 appropriation … they were using our spring 2011, which is the highest on record, and we were losing $600,000,” she said.

Snyder said the amount of money the state reimburses the colleges per credit hour based on the enrollment on the census date varies with different programs, but the blended average was $2.75 per credit hour.

She said enrollment this semester was 58,356, but the district reported 1 million fewer contact hours than budgeted.

Snyder said there were about 23 million contact hours in fiscal year 2011, and the projected amount for fiscal year 2012 went down to 22,530,405.

She said it will take a $2.4 million increase in revenue for maintenance and operations tax plus the 3 percent tuition increase to break even.

Trustees voted 6-2 at the retreat to increase tuition by 3 percent for 2012-13.

For in-district students enrolled in six or fewer hours, that means an increase of $14.

Snyder said the 3 percent tuition increase will allow the colleges to grow and support an enrollment of 66,798 students, bringing contact hours up to 24,397,125.

She said there was an expected decrease of nonexempt enrollment in the budget for the spring of 1,640 students. However, there was an additional decrease of 6,859.

Nonexempt students are students who are not exempt from paying tuition, such as those who take dual credit courses while in high school.

From fall 2010 to fall 2011, there were 802 fewer sections offered, and contact hours for nonexempt students suffered a 4.4 percent decrease.

Semester credit hours suffered a 5.5 percent decrease.

“When you look at those enrollment numbers, it was only a 1.3 percent (decrease) and that’s because each student on average is taking a little less credit hours,” Snyder said.

Average credit hours per student in fall 2010 was 8.21 compared to 7.86 for fall 2011.

From spring 2011 to spring 2012, there were 1,074 fewer sections offered and a decrease of 13 percent in contact hours for nonexempt students.

In spring 2011, 7,998 sections were offered; 6,924 sections were offered this spring.

Semester credit hours dropped 14 percent and average credit hours per student for spring 2011 was 7.97, which decreased to 7.778 this spring.

“We proactively reduced sections. That affected that we did not allow our students to come. And we had 800 less sections in the fall and 1,000 less in the spring and that is why our spring is 58,000 students,” Snyder said.

Snyder said because sections were constrained, “it was first-come, first-served.”

“So we turned students away?” District 3 trustee Anna Bustamante asked.

Chancellor Bruce Leslie responded, “Yes.”

In addition to a reduced number of sections, new district policy passed July 26 required registration end Jan. 7.

Board Policy F.6.1.1 states, "The last day for students to submit an application to enroll for classes starting at the beginning of all other parts of term will be two weeks prior to the first day of the part of term."

Senate Bill 1107, which took effect in January, also required all college students regardless of housing status to have a bacterial meningitis vaccination, or booster.

Also students who had a break in enrollment lasting at least one semester and transfer students were required to obtain the vaccination.