Who Pays When No One Is Told?

A $7-per-credit tuition raise, which the college calls 4%, without meaningfully communicating it to the people responsible for paying it is completely unacceptable, especially when working students are already straining to cover basic living expenses in a time of economic instability. On June 16, PCCC's Board of Trustees raised in-county tuition from $198 to $205 a credit. When the public hearing opened, the minutes record the chairman "hearing no one." That silence wasn't agreement. The only notice was a legal posting on the college website and campus bulletin boards on June 3, in the middle of summer. Nothing about it was illegal, but it wasn't real communication either.

The decision

Seven dollars a credit sounds small. For a full-time student taking 12 credits each semester, it adds $168 a year, on top of last year's increase from $188 to $198. In-county tuition has risen about 16% since 2020, when it was $177 a credit. A tuition hike like this can be the reason a student is in the classroom for one semester and not the next, forcing dedicated students to make the agonizing choice between paying for college to pursue the career of their dreams or settle for whatever they can find.

Who pays

The people absorbing these increases are already stretched. In a fall 2019 survey of New Jersey community college students that included PCCC, 39% reported food insecurity and 44% reported housing insecurity. State help is shrinking too. Since 2025–26, new students from families earning over $65,000 no longer qualify for New Jersey's Community College Opportunity Grant, and the governor's FY2027 budget cuts that grant by another 24.6%. Research shows price matters: a study of Texas community colleges found that enrollment in the first year after high school rose 5.1 percentage points for every $1,000 cut in tuition. Each increase pushes some students out the door.

PCCC has already lost ground. There has been a noticeable drop in enrollment and general engagement around campus, seen daily in quieter common areas and dwindling participation in campus activities. Fall enrollment fell from 5,165 in 2023 to 4,782 in 2024, a 7.4% drop, and only 43.8% of part-time students who started in Fall 2023 came back the next fall. I'm not claiming this year's increase caused that drop, since it came before the vote. But a college losing students should be asking what keeps them here, not making it harder to stay.

Where the money goes

Students deserve to know what their money funds. Between fiscal years 2018 and 2024, the total PCCC spent on instruction salaries fell 22.6%, from $20.2 million to $15.7 million, while salaries in institutional support, the category that covers administration, rose 20.6%, from $6.2 million to $7.5 million. Over roughly the same years, full-time faculty dropped from 90 to 78 while the number of managers grew from 65 to 73, and part-time adjuncts now teach more than half of all class sections. The college's own foundation, which collected about $675,000 in rent from the college last year, has reported for eight straight years that it has no written conflict-of-interest policy. None of this proves wrongdoing, but it is exactly what students should be able to ask about before they're asked to pay more.

The fix

In my opinion, this trend will continue without the purposeful outreach from the people making these decisions, which requires transparency and inviting genuine dialogue between students and decision makers. Other New Jersey colleges show how this can be done. County College of Morris requires written notice of any tuition hearing to go directly to the president of its Student Association. At Mercer County Community College, student leaders testified in 2022 and convinced the board to scale a proposed 5% increase back to 3%. PCCC already knows how to listen: for its presidential search, it gathered survey data and held three open forums. It should do the same before every tuition vote, with an email to every student, an open forum during the semester, and direct notice to the Student Government Association.

Lack of transparency and communication from the people making these decisions is where society begins to erode, because the individuals who keep society going are being shaped in the classroom. When institutional leadership acts without accountability, it dismantles the very trust that holds an academic community together. So the question for PCCC's leadership is simple: if students are the ones paying, why weren't they the first to be told?

Sources

1. PCCC Board of Trustees, July 21, 2026 board packet, containing the June 16, 2026 minutes: notice "posted on the PCCC Website and bulletin boards on June 3, 2026" and "The proposed increase in tuition is 4%, or $7 per credit hour" (p. 9); "Hearing no one" (p. 10); presidential search "survey data" and "three open forums" (p. 7). https://pccc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/July-21-2026-Board-Actions.pdf
2. PCCC FY27 Tuition and Fees Schedule: in-county $205.00 per credit (p. 1). https://pccc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/FY27-TUITION-and-FEES-WEBSITE-VERSION.pdf
3. PCCC FY26 Tuition and Fees Schedule: in-county $198.00 per credit (p. 1). https://pccc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/FY26-TUITION-and-FEES.pdf
4. PCCC FY2025 Audited Financial Statements: "$188 per credit hour in fiscal year 2025 that has increased from $177 since the fiscal year 2020" (p. 9); Foundation rent from the College of $675,392 in FY2025 (p. 57). https://pccc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/25-PCCC-Audited-Financial-Statements.pdf
5. NJ OSHE, PCCC Institutional Profile 2024: Fall 2023 headcount 5,165 (p. 9). https://www.nj.gov/highereducation/IP/IP2024/pdf/PCCC24.pdf
6. NJ OSHE, PCCC Institutional Profile 2025: Fall 2024 headcount 4,782 (p. 9); Fall 2023 cohort retention, part-time 43.8% (p. 15); 52.6% of sections taught by part-time faculty, Fall 2024 (p. 17). https://nj.gov/highereducation/IP/IP2025/pdf/PCCC25.pdf
7. The Hope Center, New Jersey Community Colleges #RealCollege Survey (Feb. 2020; fall 2019 survey): 39% food insecure, 44% housing insecure (p. 2); PCCC listed among participants (p. 5). https://dspace.njstatelib.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b9b39554-f295-4981-b259-7744e3b36c62/content
8. NJ Office of Legislative Services, FY2027 Higher Educational Services Budget Analysis: CCOG cut "$8.0 million, or 24.6 percent" (p. 4); students above $65,000 eligible only if they received an award before FY2026 (p. 11). https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/publications/budget/governors-budget/2027/hes_analysis_2027.pdf
9. Denning, J. T. (2017), "College on the Cheap: Consequences of Community College Tuition Reductions," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 9(2): 155–88, abstract: Texas; "5.1 percentage points for each $1,000 decrease in tuition." https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fpol.20150374
10. U.S. Dept. of Education IPEDS, via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal (finance and staffing, PCCC, unit ID 186034): instruction salaries $20.24M (FY2018) and $15.66M (FY2024); institutional support salaries $6.20M and $7.48M; full-time instructional staff 90 (Fall 2017) and 78 (Fall 2024); management staff 65 and 73. https://educationdata.urban.org/
11. PCCC Foundation Form 990s, FY2018–FY2025 (ProPublica): Part VI, line 12a, written conflict-of-interest policy, "No" each year. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/222137361
12. County College of Morris, Policy 4.6001: written notice "to the President of the Student Association" (p. 1). https://www.ccm.edu/wp-content/uploads/trusteesbatchthree/Policy-Manual-4.6001-Tuition-Policy.pdf
13. The College VOICE (Mercer County Community College), "MCCC 10% tuition increase approved by board of trustees," May 31, 2026 (web article; 2022 increase scaled back from 5% to 3%). https://www.mcccvoice.org/tuition-approved/

XAVIER SANTIAGO

Opinions Editor