The presidents of the area's two community colleges are following with interest a proposal expected to come before the N.C. Association of Community College Presidents at its meeting later this month. The proposal, if approved, would give individual colleges the option of adding a local tuition surcharge.

Amanda Lee, president of Cape Fear Community College, said she understands other college presidents are discussing the measure, although she has not had direct conversations with counterparts about it.

Susanne Adams, president of Brunswick Community College, explained the basic premise of the proposal.

"The local surcharge proposal allows a college’s local Board of Trustees to elect to adopt a local surcharge/supplement such that all students would be charged the additional amount, except students receiving tuition waivers. This surcharge would be 'per credit hour,'" Adams said in an email Tuesday.

The surcharge, as currently proposed, could be no more than 10 percent of the college tuition rate set by the state. To get an idea of the money that could potentially be generated, Brunswick Community College, whose students took a total of 35,415 credit hours in the 2014-15 academic year, would realize about $141,600 from a 5 percent yearly surcharge. Cape Fear would see an estimated $818,400 from a 5 percent yearly surcharge, based on the 104,600 credit hours earned by its students in 2014-15.

The proposal, however, faces hurdles.

"If moved forward by the NCACCP [N.C. Association of Community College Presidents] and passed by the State Board and the General Assembly, it then would be the decision of the Brunswick Community College Board of Trustees [whether] to implement such a surcharge," Adams continued.

Lee said the topic of generating additional revenue is one that has come on and off the NCACCP's agenda for some time, but not until the association appointed a Tuition Study Committee in the fall of 2014 did real ideas come forward.

Money generated through the surcharge could be used by the college to "any purpose for which State funds may be used as well as State Board-approved capital improvement projects, excluding projects associated with athletics," the proposal states.

Money from tuition at North Carolina's 58 community colleges is considered state money and is pooled by the community college system. The proposal, which emerged from an NCACCP-appointed Tuition Study Committee, would allow each college to decide if it wanted to levy the surcharge. If a college adopted the measure, its trustees would have to "establish a policy governing the use of the local tuition surcharge receipts ..." the proposed legislation states.

"One of the challenges we [colleges] all have is to be sure the equipment our students are using is up to date and equivalent to what they would be using outside school," Lee said. "That is the conversation we would have with our board of trustees if the proposal passes."