Panel backs off standardized fee plan
Members of the tuition task force cited negative reactions from students.
Published Oct. 4, 2005
MU administrators are distancing themselves from a tuition policy that would allow students to pay fees for 15 credit hours at one time after a negative reaction to the idea by students at a forum last week.
Chancellor Brady Deaton's tuition task force, a panel of students and administrators who advise the chancellor about tuition policies, discovered the idea known as a "tuition plateau" while examining other schools' financial policies, task force chairman Dean Mills said.
The main concern at the forum was that the model did not meet the needs of students.
The policy could lead students to choose between either paying for classes they didn't take or taking more classes than they could handle, said Jason Blunk, a tuition task force member and chairman of the Missouri Students Association's Student Fee Review Committee.
Graduate Professional Council President Mark Beard said full-time students might feel pressured to take more hours than they normally would in order to take advantage of the plateau.
According to the University Registrar, 12,835 undergraduates took fewer than 15 credit hours during fall semester 2004. About 9,048 students took 15 or more credit hours.
Beard said that even if all students managed to keep up with the extra coursework, he is worried that MU would not have the faculty to support burgeoning class sizes.
MSA President Tony Luetkemeyer said the policy could put strains on the university.
"If a tuition plateau were implemented, I would expect most students to take advantage of the extra three hours at no additional cost, which could result in over-crowded classrooms and labs with no apparent revenue stream to meet the increased demands," Luetkemeyer said.
Students who did not have time for 15 hours would lose money with a tuition plateau, Blunk said.
Beard said there are two benefits to the tuition plateau.
"We get students through school faster if they're taking more credit hours," Beard said.
Finances also would be easier to plan for both families and the university, he said.
"We would be able to meet our budget expenditures," Beard said. "It's one of the easier tuition models to budget with the finances coming in. It's a much simpler plan. Everybody pays for 15 hours."
In the end, Blunk said the chancellor received more support for a per-credit hour based tuition policy.
"This model increases communication through regular meetings with stakeholders, including students, and seeks to simplify the process of finding out how much one's tuition will be," Blunk said.
MU has accepted tuition payments per credit hour since 1986, MU spokesman Jeff Neu said.
The university was on a plateau tuition rate, ranging from 10 to 14 credit hours from 1969 through 1986.