Attached to Jamestown Community College’s tentative 2025-2026 budget is a 2.8% tuition increase.

The JCC Finance and Audit committee last week adopted the $33,040,734 tentative spending plan which includes the $160 per year tuition hike.

“A lot of work has gone into developing this budget. We have been at it since last October,” JCC President Dr. Daniel DeMarte said. “And while it represents a lot of work, it obviously is not where we would like to be, but it does represent, I think, putting the college in a better position than we were a year ago, and sets the stage for where we go from here.”

According to Interim Vice President of Finance and Operations Kathleen Dennison, the tentative budget is based on 2,200 full-time equivalent students for tuition and fees, and 280 occupied beds for residence hall revenues.

“So that is our FTE goal,” Dennison said. “The number of occupied in the residence halls is 280 per semester, and that’s unchanged from this (academic) year.”

Dennison noted that the tentative spending plan does not reflect any potential changes in federal policies or executive orders.

“Because at this time,” she added, “the effects of those changes are not known, so the things that we do know and can use as our assumptions are tuition rates so tuition is going up 2.8 percent or $160 over the current (academic) year.”

Dennison added that officials said the increase was held to $160 recognizing that students and their families may still be struggling financially because of inflation and post-pandemic impacts.

The College Connections program also will see a change, Dennison noted. JCC will begin to charge participating school districts for the program.

“So we are expecting, starting next year, to be charging school districts for their participation in the college Connections program,” Dennison said. “The first year of this participation, we will be charging 11 percent of the regular rate for credit hour, and expecting that that will increase to 33 percent starting in 2026-27.”

According to sunyjcc.com, College Connections is a collaboration between JCC and its partner school districts. The program allows students to earn concurrent high school and college credit by completing JCC courses taught in the high schools by highly qualified, JCC-trained and supported teachers.

The content, assignments, projects, and assessments in College Connections courses are consistent with those taught on the JCC campus. College Connections students work towards the same outcomes as those enrolled in on-campus courses. Students who successfully complete College Connections courses earn JCC credit, which is verified by an official transcript.

High school instructors who teach College Connections courses are reviewed, selected, and supported by JCC faculty. These instructors work with JCC faculty liaisons to ensure that their courses give students an opportunity to experiment with the academic rigor of university coursework while in high school, the site said.

She said Chautauqua County and Cattaraugus County contributions increase where Chautauqua is slated for a 2 percent increase and Cattaraugus is slated for a 2.2 percent increase. The college anticipates receiving $400,000 from the JCC Foundation to offset costs associated with scholarships.

Dennison said the tentative budget includes rate increases for all three unions at JCC which include the Service Association, the Professional and Supervisor Alliance, and the JCC Faculty Association, although the association’s pact is not yet finalized. The increase amounts to $400,680 or 2.9%. She said much of the increase is due to the newly-ratified agreement with JCCSA.

“Overall the staffing cost is going up almost 3 percent. We have eliminated some positions. We have not filled some vacant positions,” Dennison said.

Deans, executive directors, vice presidents, and the president will not receive salary increases which results in a savings of $25,699, Dennison added.

Now the tentative budget will go before the JCC Board of Trustees for approval.