The Danville Area Community College Board of Trustees took care of a couple major decisions during Thursday night’s meeting that was shortened by the weather. First of all, three new Arts Associate Degrees and Certificate Programs will now be available from Danville Area Community College. These would be an Associate in Fine Arts in Music Performance Degree, an Associate in Fine Arts in Music Education Degree, and a Music Performance and Production Certificate.
DACC president Dr. Stephen Nacco says with so much musical fine arts right in the Danville area, such as the Danville Symphony Orchestra and Danville Light Opera; it makes wonderful sense to have these degrees available, and have them transferrable.
AUDIO: There’s been a lot of interest over a long period of time for us to ramp up our music. What Dr. Bridges was talking about is these are programs that you can start at DACC, get an Associate’s Degree, and go on to have a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Production, and also in just the business of music. So there is a high interest in this and there are definitely jobs, particularly with a Bacholor’s degree, for higher paying jobs.
Meanwhile, as talked about during the previous Board of Trustees meeting, the routine of incremental tuition increases at DACC will continue. Starting with this fall’s semester, there will be a five dollar tuition increase per credit hour; ten dollars for those outside the district, state, or country. Dr. Nacco says, as they mentioned before, budget shortfalls should not be placed entirely on the students’ backs.
AUDIO: A deficit that’s projected for the year is about $400,000. If $200,000 of it would be in the increase of five dollars per credit (hour), the other $200,000 will be something that the college needs to do in figuring out economies. As a publicly funded entity, what we’re not going to do is expect more contributions from the state to solve the problem, or local taxes to solve it.
And of course students can go to dacc.edu/foundation to apply for scholarships. The deadline to apply for scholarships for this coming fall’s semester is March 7th.
