CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Del Mar College officials are looking at the possibility of offering free tuition to incoming freshmen. This could be possible because of House Bill 8 which passed last year and was designed to help better fund junior colleges.
Students and educators 3NEWS spoke with are excited about the plan.
Del Mar's Board of Regents was holding a workshop on Thursday on its future vision.
Free tuition for freshmen would certainly be a vision those students and their parents could get behind, but the math is going to have to add up first before college officials are able to offer such a deal.
"I’ve seen that work in other colleges and other universities across the state," Board of Regents Chair Carol Scott said. "I think there are certainly opportunities and if that’s something our staff feels like we have the feasibility to do, of course we’d love to see that."
College President Dr. Mark Escamilla added that DMC has the space to add a large influx of students.
"We have sufficient space currently, we have ample space with our master plan that we continue to complete," he said.
Students like Rick Cantu heard about the possible offer and thought it was a great idea.
"That way they don’t have to stress over so much money especially as an incoming freshmen, so it doesn’t have too much weight on their plate and so it’s going to make things more easy for them," he said.
Travis Elementary School Principal Yvonne Salinas believes an offer of free tuition would be a life changing measure.
"I think it would give a lot of hope to students not just in our neighborhood but also in all of Corpus Christi," she said.
Officials told 3NEWS the decision could be made sometime in February if it is feasible.