County Roundup: Suffolk College Eyes Tuition Hike

Article was posted by Barbara Capella Loehr, and written by Sara Walsh.

Suffolk County Community College trustees are considering a proposal to increase tuition by $150 per full-time student for the 2013-14 school year.

Newsday reports the proposal would raise tuition for full-time students from $3,990 to $4,140 per year, an increase of 3.76 percent. The measure is proposed as part of the $198.1 million budget pitched for the coming school year.

Tuition costs for SCCC have remained unchanged since 2011-12. The college is among only four of 30 state community colleges that didn't raise tuition rates for the current school year.

If approved, then SCCC officials said the tuition hike will generate $3.2 million a year to help pay for rising costs.

The SCCC budgetary costs include $2.8 million in pension and health care insurance and $1.9 million in salary raises.

SCCC is the largest in the New York State system, and hit record levels of enrollment after the recession first hit in 2007. Student enrollment is expected to decline by two percent for the upcoming year.

Suffolk Hires Additional 911 Operators
The County plans to hire more than a dozen emergency call center employees due to on-going complaints of staffing shortages.

Newsday reported the County will hire 14 employees to work in the 911 call center: eight 911 operators and six dispatchers.

County Executive Steve Bellone authorized six hires and five promotions this past Winter.

The County’s police dispatch center had as many as 30 of its 154 vacant positions earlier this year. Entry-level positions in the department pay approximately $40,000 a year.

In addition to the new hires, the Bellone administration will be looking for ways to improve the efficiency of the emergency call system, including finding possible ways to relieve operators of non-emergency calls.

Suffolk Officials Promote Gun Violence Awareness in June
Bellone and other County officials have declared June to be Gun Violence Awareness Month across Suffolk.

County officials and police will work together to promote gun awareness, discussions and activities throughout Suffolk.

“Every year approximately 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence,” Bellone said in a written statement.

“As we've been a witness to senseless gun-related tragedies throughout our country, it's more important than ever to take the opportunity to raise awareness and do everything we can to reduce gun-violence in our communities," he said.

In schools all Suffolk County Police School Resource officers will discuss gun violence, with special attention given to middle school and high school students in health classes.

Crime Stoppers will run a Help Keep Your Community Safe campaign that offers a $500 reward for information that leads to an arrest for illegal handgun use or possession.

In addition a gun buy-back program is scheduled for May 11 at the Lighthouse Mission in Bellport.

The Suffolk County Police Department will also schedule community forums in those neighborhoods with the highest number of shooting victims in 2012 and 2013 to educate, design and discuss a gun violence prevention strategy.

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