Schools

JJC Student Fees Going Up by $4 to Fund New Buildings

A full-time student taking 12 credit hours would pay $48 more per semester to fund $45 million in new construction on the Joliet and Romeoville campuses.

By Karen Sorensen

Joliet Junior College students may see their credit-hour cost go up by $4 this fall in order to fund the proposed the $45 million expansion of the Joliet and Romeoville campuses.

The JJC Board has tentatively earmarked a hike in the capital assessment fee, which every student pays per credit hour taken, as the means of repaying bonds sold for a new multipurpose building in Joliet and new academic and student buildings in Romeoville, JJC spokeswoman Kelly Rohder said.

The expansion plan is likely to be approved at a July 30 special board meeting and the fee increase discussed and possibly approved at the board's regular Aug. 14 meeting, Rohder said.

Students currently pay $17 per credit hour for the capital assessment fee. That would increase to $21 under the proposed increase, Rohder said.

For a full-time student taking 12 credit hours per semester, the fee would increase from $204 per semester to $252. For someone taking a single three-hour class, however, the increase would be $12 -- escalating the fee from $51 to $63.

"I'm understanding this (building plan) will not affect taxpayers at all," Rohder said. "It's going to be totally student-funded." 

Students pay the capital assessment fee as part of the overall per-credit-hour cost of $107, which also includes tuition and student and technology fees, Rohder said. So, while tuition per se will not be increasing, the per-hour cost that students see on the bottom line of their bill will be $111 under the proposed change, she said.

And while the fee increase will start being collected in fall 2013 semester, the timetable for actual construction to begin has not been set, Rohder said. Many things, including blueprints for the new buildings, still need to be completed before ground can be broken, she said.

The multipurpose building, which is to add about 142,000 square feet to the Joliet campus, will be located at the far southwestern corner of the school grounds. 

The new buildings proposed for the Romeoville campus -- which has 4,000 students and is "experiencing the most pronounced growth rate
when compared to the other JJC campuses" -- will add about 17,400 square feet for academics and about 8,930 square feet for student development, according to the master plan.

"Additional space for both academic programs and student development space are needed to respond to this growth and provide for a more self-sufficient operation and delivery of educational services," the master plan said.

Also included in the master plan but not yet earmarked for construction are several projects for the Joliet campus, including an addition to the theater/fine arts department, a new campus police building and a new bridge.

JJC enrollment has climbed by 52.6 percent between 1991 and 2011, with a projected 16,153 students to be enrolled in fall 2013. If projections hold, the school's enrollment will be 26,826 by fall 2040, according to the master plan.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here