From Deseret News archives:
A tuition break is in works for non-Utahns
Armed with a new state law, all nine Utah colleges and universities plan to allow students to live in Utah only one year to qualify for resident tuition, which is cheaper than out-of-state tuition, said David Doty, assistant commissioner of higher education.
The University of Utah's graduate programs, however, will require that students also earn 40 credit hours to be eligible for resident tuition, and medical students, 60 credit hours, said Paul Brinkman, U. vice president for budgeting.
The change comes in light of a new law that undid the unpopular and restrictive three-year or 60-credit-hour wait to apply for resident status, but it still lets institutions keep that restriction if desired. The Utah Board of Regents approved Friday a policy to implement the law.
Out-of-state students who have been in Utah one or two years aren't expected to get immediate relief, however. The clock starts ticking on the one-year residency rule July 1, so students couldn't qualify for in-state tuition until July 2008.
"This will have a very positive effect on our recruiting," said Stan Albrecht, president of Utah State University, hit hard by the old law.
Following bad budget times, legislators in 2005 passed a law requiring college students to live in Utah three years, or earn 60 credit hours, before qualifying for in-state tuition, Doty said.
Out-of-state tuition can cost three times as much as in-state.
The law was one of the nation's most restrictive, the Utah System of Higher Education reports. And overall, Utah institutions, with the exception of the U., lost out-of-staters — nearly 600 in the first year alone, system data show.
The land-grant USU, situated near the Idaho border, in the past two years has lost about 500 Idaho students, many of whom considered Logan part of their community, Albrecht said. Students from Idaho and Wyoming help sustain USU's agricultural program.
With flat numbers of students coming out of high school, college enrollments are expected to be flat or dip over the next several years, Doty said.
But now, students must have lived here one year beginning July 1 and prove they are not being claimed as a deduction on their parents' tax returns.
Basically, if you come here to go to school, you'll have to wait a year for resident tuition. But if you come here for another reason — a job transfer, you marry a Utah resident or for the military, you'll be considered a resident. There's also no residency requirement for noncredit programs lasting less than a year, such as those through the Utah College of Applied Technology.
The one-year rule won't be applied retroactively because the law isn't effective until July 1. College and university presidents as a group also wanted a year to plan for a potential funding drop with fewer students paying the higher rate, Doty said.
In other action, regents received research regarding challenges and opportunities associated with concurrent enrollment, in which high school students take courses for college credit. Some regents and college presidents noted issues with the program, including balancing resources to sustain quality and students starting to come to two-year colleges for a brief time because they've earned so many credits in high school.
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com
