Utah students to be penalized for lolly-gagging
College students in Utah who exceed 135 percent of the credits needed to graduate before they complete their education will be charged out of state tuition prices, starting Fall Semester 2004.
The policy was passed by the Utah Board of Regents in an effort to encourage students to finish more quickly and affects all universities funded by the state.
“There are a lot of students in the system of higher education,” said Sydney Peterson, assistant provost at USU, “and the concern comes from those students taking excess credits and creating bottleneck situations for other students in the system. They are taking up space and should already be out of the system.”
Only those students eligible for in-state tuition will be affected; those already paying nonresident prices will not see any changes to their education costs because of the policy.
Peterson said there are currently 158 students attending Utah State University who exceed the credit limitation (about 170 credits) and only 59 of them are graduating this spring. Around 260 more students have exceeded 150 credits on USU campus.
Part of the bottlenecking problem in classes stems from priority registration, Peterson said, and the hope is by eliminating those students with excess amounts of credits, the spots they are filling in higher division classes will now be more available to those students who need them.
Clint Moffitt, vice president for Administrative Services, said, “The goal is to decrease the time to graduate, and those who have exceeded that timeline should have to pay for it.”
Currently, 70 percent of a student’s tuition cost is paid for by the state, Moffitt said, and those not graduating in a reasonable amount of time will no longer be allowed to use those funds. Those students accustomed to paying in-state tuition would be subject to just under a $6,400 increase after paying out-of-state prices.
Jennifer Rigby, an undeclared sophomore, said she is worried the policy will unfairly punish those students who are working hard but who have had a difficult time choosing a major or career path.
“It’s not a waste of the state’s money as long as you’re doing something and trying to better yourself,” she said.
Peterson said the policy does allow for exceptions, and special circumstances will be accommodated.
According to the policy, some of those exceptions will include credits required for a student’s major, if the excess of credits are because some were obtained at other universities that did not transfer into their program, and students that have large numbers of credits because they are returning to earn a degree after a long break in their education.
“Even if you have an absence still calculated in there, there are occasions for appeals, so students can qualify for an exception,” Peterson said.
The biggest obstacle will be informing students of the change, Peterson said. A mass e-mail will be sent to those students who have exceeded or are nearing the number of credits allowed. Appeals can then be made through the Registrar’s Office, Moffitt said.
“We don’t want anyone to be caught off guard,” Peterson said. “Summer will be a grace period.”
The policy is mostly geared toward those students who have been in their programs for long amounts of time, Moffitt said, and not aimed at punishing students who have changed majors. Also, Peterson said credits earned through Advanced Placement and similar programs will not be applied to the credit limitation. Only those credits earned through a university institution will be applied.
Savannah Spackman, a sophomore majoring in social studies, said she thinks the idea is a good one.
“It’s a good plan because in the real world you have to make real decisions, and this is a good way to propel people to become what they are supposed to and can become,” she said.
A junior in the interior design program, Marie Aitken, said, “It’s easy to say that it will be a good idea and that it would work, but if I was in the position where I had to pay out of state tuition, I would probably disagree.”
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu