SUCCESS program making changes
Kassie The Success Program at Utah State University is changing because of House Bill 331.
The bill states that students attending Utah institutions must attain 60 credits before receiving in-state tuition, said Heather Thomas, director of the Success Program.
Previously, students who attended the institution for one year would received in-state tuition.
Thomas said Success is a scholarship program for out-of-state incoming freshmen. The goal is to help keep students at USU. All students in Success live in Valley View and Mountain View Towers. Success offers room, board, tuition and student fees to be paid at once at a lower price and with in-state tuition.
“[The changes we are asked to make to Success] is just another challenge. It’s a chance for us to re-think our program and its structure,” Thomas said.
Jacob Guttormsen, Carson Mills, Kellie VanLoo and Marylyn Compton are all Success students from the Western United States. They each applied for Copy Ed 8/29/02 what does this mean? the program and anticipated the previous program, as outlined to them, but due to HB 331, that has changed.
“We came into Success expecting to get what they told us when they recruited us and we didn’t get it. It makes me mad,” Guttormsen said.
“It’s entrapment by the Legislature. How many times has state education come up and they decide to change it now? The timing for this is really inconvenient [for the students]. They are trying to save money by charging us more and basically forcing students to leave because we don’t have enough money,” Mills said.
“It’s really frustrating that I got my letter saying that the program had changed so late. It didn’t give me much time to change schools if I had wanted to,” VanLoo said.
Copy Ed 8/29/02 This quote doesn’t really make sense “If I am going to have to pay in-state tuition and I might have to go back home. I really want to stay at USU and this is going to make it harder,” Compton said.
Students still like Success though. VanLoo, Compton, Guttormsen and Mills all agreed that Success was simpler, cheaper and more personal than just attending USU as a regular out-of-state student. The classes are smaller and the professors are hand-picked.
“They kind of screwed us over. They said we would receive in-state tuition and we won’t. I need this program,” Guttormsen said.
The students are willing to deal with the changes this year but many expressed that next year might not be possible.