Hassett

Students of Iowa Valley Community College District who are eligible for food stamps will soon be able to get assistance through the district.

Students eligible for food stamps would no longer have to apply directly to the Iowa Department of Human Services for assistance. Instead, IVCCD will help students fill out the necessary paperwork to be submitted. Eligible students would then be able to utilize other tuition assistance programs available through the district.

The Iowa Department of Human Services has offered a 50 percent reimbursement to IVCCD for any non-federal funds spent on the eligible students.

IVCCD Director of Student Support Services Becky Hassett, who completed the application for the program, said reimbursed funds will have to be used on services for students eligible for food stamps.

“So maybe that’s instructors or infrastructure type things that students would be able to use,” Hassett said.

Chancellor of IVCCD Kristie Fisher said the program can help vulnerable students who are most likely to leave school due to the inability to feed their family.

“We can help improve student success and retention and at a time when we have employers just desperate for trained workers, it also means we can increase the likelihood they’re going to get through training and get into a job that then allows them that they won’t need food stamps anymore and our local employers will be able to hire them,” Fisher said. “It has so many wins for the community and the individual.”

The IVCCD Board of Directors unanimously approved a subcontract with Kirkwood Community College, the main holders of the contract with the Iowa Department of Human Services to provide food assistance, at their regular meeting Wednesday night. The program is set to begin July 1.

In other business…

The IVCCD Board of Directors approved cost increases to tuition, meal plans and housing for Marshalltown Community College.

For Iowa resident students, the tuition cost increases at $3 per credit hour. For non-Iowa resident students, the tuition increase is $6 per credit hour. This brings the total in-state tuition cost from $207 per credit hour to $210 per credit hour, and the total out-of-state tuition cost from $221 per credit hour to $227 per credit hour.

The $3 increase to in-state tuition is the same increase IVCCD made in 2020 to in-state tuition.

“Tuition increases are always a hard decision to make,” Fisher said. “We’re happy this year to stay at $3 a credit hour again.”

IVCCD Chief Financial Officer Kathy Pink said after surveying other community colleges in the state, the $3 increase per credit hour to in-state tuition is less than the average. She found that $5 per credit hour was the average increase to tuition in Iowa.

Housing charges increased by 1 percent at the north, east and south residence halls at MCC. A cost for a double room is $2,550 per semester and the cost for a single room is $3,375 per semester.

Meal plans at MCC will also receive a 1 percent increase in costs. The 18-meal residential plan’s cost will be $1,340 per semester and the commuter student meal plan offering five meals per week will cost $460 per semester.

The IVCCD Board of Directors also approved a 1.5 percent salary increase for all regular full-time employees and part-time employees eligible for benefits.

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Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.