Graduation $100 fee eliminated

From now on, Utah State University graduating seniors do not have to worry about paying a $100-application fee for turning in late graduation packets.

The university advisers approved a new policy Thursday morning that says a $10 application fee will be assessed to students who apply for graduation prior to the semester they graduate. Students who apply within the semester they graduate will be assessed a $50 application fee, Heidi Beck, associate registrar, said.

“I’m just so excited,” Beck said. “It just makes it nicer.”

In years past, students were required to pay $100 for applications submitted after the deadline. This year’s deadline would have been Oct. 17.

“I certainly appreciate it,” Seth Gurell, a senior in English who would have had to pay $100 to graduate this December, said. “I’m happy they changed it.”

For the past few weeks, Beck had been working with the administration and advisers to make the graduation process less lengthy and easier for everyone.

“Usually, if students don’t start [their graduation packets] right at the beginning of the semester, they will never make the deadline,” Beck said.

With the new policy, the six-person staff that processes all the university’s graduation applications won’t have to do everything within the first six weeks of the semester, Beck said.

“They’re working so hard,” she said. “We really do have the students’ interests in mind.”

This year there are about 1,500 students graduating summer and fall semesters 2005 and about 2,000 students are graduating spring 2006.

“I’m happy they’re helping us save money because we don’t have a lot of money as it is,” Donald Penn, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary studies who is graduating in the spring, said.

The new policy was also approved by President Stan Albrecht and the associate deans. It will go into effect immediately.

-mmackay@cc.usu.edu