Credit limit

Students face a different type of credit limit

By Chase Christensen

Students at Utah State University who exceed 125 percent of the total credit hours needed to graduate will be charged double tuition for each additional semester, according to a vote taken on Nov. 15 by the Utah State Board of Regents to change the current policy. It is a change that may have students paying thousands of dollars in additional tuition for not graduating on time.

The former policy allowed for students to take up to 135 percent of credits necessary to graduate, which at USU allowed for 162 credits to be taken before penalties were incurred for undergraduates. The recent change in policy will only affect students coming to USU next school year; current students will still be held to the 135 percent standard, said Roland Squire, registrar at USU.

“The 125 percent will only apply to students entering USU starting fall 2013,” Squire said. “We are doing a lot more to help students create plans to graduate and helping them follow those plans, so I do not anticipate that we will have many students reach that level.”

The change will allow incoming students to take up to 150 total credit hours before receiving a surcharge equal to double tuition per semester, he said.

“I understand why the legislature requested the Board of Regents to create the policy for all Utah colleges and universities,” Squire said. “USU has an excellent plan and process in place to help students complete on a timely basis and so the policy does not really add any additional pressure on us.”

But some said they worried it is yet another way for the school to make even more money off students.

“I understand they are just trying to provide motivation for students to graduate,” said Colten Roberts, a student at USU. “But I think they are going about it the wrong way. I think it will just cause more people to drop out when they go over the limit.”

USU, however, maintains that it will do everything it can to alert students when they approach the limit and provide them with a plan to graduate before it is reached, Squire said.

“If they want to complete on time they should be able to do so,” Squire said. “If students do reach that level they will know well in advance. It will not come as a surprise.”