AUSTIN &045; Riverland Community College will be taking a hit next year thanks to state budget cuts, and although programs will stay intact, students will pay more in tuition, Interim President Jim Davis said.

Planning for the loss of funds &045; $1.4 million next year and $1.5 million for the 2004-05 school year &045; started early this year, so there should not be any scrambling to make up the cash, Davis said.

&uot;We’ve got it pretty well worked out for this year and the year after,&uot; he said.

Nonetheless, the crunch will be felt, most noticeably by students paying higher tuition next year. Previously, the administration had

hoped to raise tuition by 10 percent, but Davis said they had to approach the students with two options: increases of 12 or 13 percent next year.

&uot;They said, ‘Well, it looks like we’d get a better educational experience at 13,’&uot; Davis said.

This means next year’s tuition and fees will be about $115 per credit hour and $130 for 2004-05, pending state approval. This year’s tuition and fees total $102.80 per credit. The numbers are for residents of Minnesota or Iowa; residents of other states pay more.

Scheduled increases and other funding to programs also will be affected, Davis said. Nursing, English as a second language (ESL) classes and other classes related to ESL will not see the extra personnel or technology instructors had hoped for.

&uot;It just means we’re not going to be keeping up as well as we had hoped to, but we’re still going to have good programs,&uot; Davis said.

He said instructors in the ESL programs had hoped for equipment and materials that will not be coming.

&uot;We’re going to have to do it more the old-fashioned classroom way,&uot; Davis said.

Students taking ESL and related classes generally have a lot of trouble paying high tuition, Davis said. Financial aid programs are tough to come by for these students. They can be forced to take classes beyond their language capabilities &045; or take fewer credits, focusing on learning the language, but falling out of qualification for financial assistance because they do not fulfill the credit requirements.

&uot;That’s the problem with the whole financial aid situation across America,&uot; Davis said.

Cuts of $505,000 this year meant some of the programs already had adjusted budgets. Davis said they handled the problem well and will continue to do so.

&uot;We got ahead of it,&uot; he said. &uot;We started in January working toward what we thought would happen to it.&uot;

However, he said there is not much more room to cut.

&uot;If the legislature does this again, I don’t know what the school does,&uot; he said.