Two of the three community colleges that were denied large tuition increases last week now plan to raise tuition by not more than 5 percent.
Administrators at West Virginia University at Parkersburg and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College won't have to go before the Council for Community and Technical College Education to get permission for the increases.
The third school, BridgeValley Community and Technical College, hasn't decided how its budget will look, said spokesman Brian Bolyard. He couldn't say when the school might make a decision.
At the meeting last week, council member and state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette rebuked several schools for relying too much on large tuition increases to fill holes in their budgets. Of five schools that proposed tuition increases more than 5 percent, only one request was approved in full and one request was reduced.
The three schools will still need the state council to approve their budgets during a special meeting on July 27.
Schools don't have to reach a decision on their budgets by that day, according to Heather Raines, spokeswoman for the Community and Technical College System.
West Virginia University at Parkersburg President Fletcher Lamkin said Tuesday that his school will go forward with a flat 5 percent tuition increase, which means the school's deteriorating facilities might continue to go unfixed.
If the council had approved the school's request for two tuition increases - a 14.9 percent tuition increase for in-state students enrolled in its associate's program and a 17.3 percent increase for its bachelor's program - the school's revenue would have been padded with an excess of about $1 million extra than in the year prior.
"Right now our tuition is second lowest in the state by just a few dollars," Lamkin said. "It would be the lowest if it would be just a few dollars less. We're not talking about a college that is making a lot of money off of tuition, we're talking about a college playing catch-up."
That extra $1 million would have gone to fix a series of deferred maintenance issues, Lamkin said. The school's four HVAC units are original to the campus' main build, which is nearly 50 years old. Three parts of the roof at the school's main building need repairs - one that should be entirely replaced.
Staff members from the school told the council that a series of roots have invaded the campus' sewer line, which, if unfixed, could be a safety hazard.
One bright spot, though, is an extra $530,000 the school received from the sale of its downtown center. Lamkin said the last of three buildings was sold in May, and all of that money will go toward fixing the school's deferred maintenance.
"People need to understand that this [tuition increase] is not a plan to meet our month-to-month bills," Lamkin said. "This is a plan to make sure the college is in great shape 10 years from now.
Southern WVCTC's Board of Governors met Tuesday and approved a tuition increase of 4.51 percent - down from the 6.8 percent it requested last week. That difference means he school will take in about $72,000 less in tuition revenue than it had originally planned on.
Administrators settled on a 4.51 percent increase to make the school's accounting simpler. The increase will mean that each credit hour will cost about $6 more, according to documents from the board's meeting. The board also approved a broad plan for how the school plans to raise tuition through the year 2021.
How will the school make up for the $72,000 difference this year?
"We'll be trying to turn our lights up a little more, try to turn the heat down," said Robert Gunter, the school's president. "No one program is going to take that big of a hit."
Gunter said Samuel Litteral, the school's vice president of finance and administration, will watch closely over the budget to make sure that every department spends a little less.
Burdette criticized the colleges last week for asking for such large tuition increases when, just hours after the council's meeting ended, he would have to lay off 37 foresters from his own Division of Forestry.
"I understand everything Mr. Burdette is going through, and I don't want to criticize him," Litteral said. "Here at Southern, anytime a person leaves voluntarily, we know we're not at the same level of students, so we scrutinize every position to make sure it's still necessary."
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939 or follow @NewsroomJake on Twitter.