Originally published June 28, 2007 at 12:14 p.m., updated July 2, 2007 at 10:35 a.m.
Melissa Melling has a lot in common with her two older sisters, Molly and Marianne. She will live in the dorms, root for the basketball team, and like Molly, she will go through sorority recruitment.
One thing Melissa, incoming Leawood freshman, won’t have in common with Molly, currently a senior, or Marianne, currently a junior, is worrying about tuition increases.
The Kansas Board of Regents approved a plan Thursday, which guarantees tuition for first-time freshmen will not increase during the four years they attend the University. The freshmen class of Fall 2007 will be the first to sign on for the fixed-tuition plan.
The plan is called the Four-Year Tuition Compact. Lynn Bretz, director of communications for the University, said it gives freshmen the costs of tuition as well as campus and course fees for four years in advance. On-campus housing rates will also be fixed in an optional two-year contract. The plan helps students plan for their college career.
“It gives students a fixed, stable tuition rate from freshmen to senior year, or 48 months,” Bretz said. “It help makes the cost of college known and certain.”
Freshmen do not have to enroll in a maximum or minimum number of hours for the plan. However, after a student attends the University for 48 months, if they are not ready to graduate, tuition returns to the standard rate, which current students and incoming transfer students pay. Because the compact tuition rate stops after four years it motivates students to graduate on time, Bretz said.
“Graduating in four years is an incentive,” Bretz said. “Students will know to buckle down and get their degree now while tuition is at a stable rate.”
Programs that take longer than four years will be covered by the plan until the four years are up, then students will pay the standard tuition rate. Education majors pay the standard rate at the graduate level for their post-baccalaureate year.
Along with tuition, course fees and required campus fees are also established for students each year. Course fees are set on a per-credit-hour basis. Course fees for Fall 2007 are $377.75.
Hannah Love, Dodge City, senior, and Student Body President, said Student Senate began an initiative in 2005 asking the University to adopt a fixed tuition rate plan. Love, who pays her own tuition, said Student Senate approached the administration to stabilize tuition for the benefit of students’ and parents’ pocketbooks.
“The plan gives students an opportunity to plan and know in advance if they need a job to get through college,” Love said. “It’s hard not knowing.”
Love, a self proclaimed ‘budgeter,’ said when she was in high school she constantly checked the University’s tuition rates. She thought the money she made working with the Dodge City Courthouse was enough to get by in college. After researching and realizing the University’s tuition was on the rise, she knew she had a lot more work to do and a lot more money to save. Love said most students don’t have a clue how much college costs.
— Edited by Ben Smith
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