PENDLETON — Blue Mountain Community College board members voted unanimously Wednesday evening to raise tuition.

In-state tuition will increase $2 per credit hour next year from its current $108. BMCC President Dennis Bailey-Fougnier recommended the bump, along with equal increases in each of the following two years.

Currently, the college’s tuition hovers in the middle of Oregon community colleges, with Lane Community charging the most at $118 and Chemeketa at the bottom with $91 per credit hour. Factoring in fees makes Blue Mountain Community College the most expensive of the state’s 17 community colleges at $6,188 annually for tuition and fees together.

Because of the school’s relatively high cost, the college’s Integrated Budget Committee earlier urged against a tuition hike, but said if a hike had to occur, to keep it at $2 or less.

With no tuition increase, “BMCC would not see any increase in revenue and our financial deficit would not change,” Bailey-Fougnier said. “If we do not consider modest and predictable increases, BMCC will need to cut $2.8 million for 2021-22. The recommended increases will help the deficit ever so slightly.”

The college’s falling enrollment, increasing Public Employment Retirement System payments and decreasing state support converge into a grim picture of financial pain. The tuition hike will make a tiny dent.

Board member Jane Hill thanked students and faculty for sacrifices, while also acknowledging that the $2 bump was “a little bit like holding a bake sale to solve a $3 million problem.”

Starting at $6.1 million in reserves at the end of 2017-18, the college is in danger of falling below the $1.5 million minimum required by the board.

The board stopped short of also raising tuition for the two following years, but declared its intention to do so as a way to allow students and their families to make financial plans.

“The school doesn’t want to be in the position of making promises we can’t keep,” said BMCC Board of Education Chair Heidi Van Kirk. “We won’t commit to two future years, but will commit to the intent.”

Out-of-state students will see a $3 increase in tuition and international students will pay an extra $6. Current out-of-state tuition costs $162 per credit hour and international tuition is $324. Most BMCC students are in-state, as the college offers in-state tuition to residents of Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Washington. The college has only one international student.