Many fail to qualify for tuition refunds

Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 | 11:27 a.m.

How to get refunds

Students who believe they were wrongly classified as a nonresident and deserve a refund must first prove that they lived in Nevada six months before starting classes at a state institution.

If their parents or guardians are Nevada residents, they must show:

Financially independent students must submit:

Students who begin as out-of-state students who want to be reclassified as in-state must submit similar information as financiallyindependent students, but meet a higher burden of proof.

The proposed residency policy is available online at nevada.edu/index2.html under the Board of Regents Aug. 19-20 agenda.

Public outcry turned to cheers last spring when the state's Board of Regents voted to follow state law and shortened the residency requirement for in-state tuition from one year to six months.

But since March, when regents voted to provide refunds to all students who paid out-of-state tuition in error, only 142 out of 400 applications for refunds have met the requirements, Buster Neel, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said. UNLV has given more than half of those, with 76.

The problem was many students who sought refunds don't understand the residency requirements, higher education officials say.

Regents may clarify those requirements next week, when they consider an ironed-out version of the policy that will detail who qualifies for in-state tuition, how to prove residency and how non-residents can be reclassified as residents.

State law and higher education policy say that students have to live in the state for six months before starting classes at one of the University and Community College System of Nevada's institutions to qualify for in-state tuition.

Many of those who applied didn't meet that requirement, officials said.

Of those who did, many could not provide the extensive documentation needed to prove they were bona fide residents and not out-of-state students trying to enjoy Nevada's cheaper resident tuition.

That documentation included a minimum of four proofs of residency, such as a lease agreement, utility bills, Nevada driver's license or identification, vehicle registration or voter registration. Students whose parents did not already live in the state also must prove financial independence.

The intricacies of the residency policy led to a lot of confusion among the students and the different institutions, regents said, allowing for different standards among different schools.

The new policy would define residency, how it can be proved and how an out-of-state student can become an in-state student.

"I think it needs to be extremely clear," said Regent Steve Sisolak, who spearheaded the change in the policy. "A lot of people don't know what counts or what doesn't.

MaryAnn Dal Porto of San Francisco is one of the many confused and frustrated parents trying to help their children secure in-state tuition. Her daughter, Sabrina Herrera, moved in with her brother in July 2003 in the Silverado Ranch area of Las Vegas to attend the University of Nevada-Las Vegas that fall.

Dal Porto says her daughter is a full-fledged resident of Nevada and has registered to vote in the upcoming elections, but she did not live in Nevada for six months prior to starting classes. And because Herrera graduated from a San Francisco high school, UNLV officials have told her and her mother that she can not be reclassified as a resident student.

Part of the problem, Dal Porto says, is that the current and proposed Board of Regents' residency policies each demand that students not be claimed as a dependent on their parents' income tax records if their parents live out of state, even if the parent is paying the tuition.

"Where does UNLV think you are getting the $6,000 a semester for out-of-state tuition?" Dal Porto said in an e-mail to the Sun. "I think it is really unfair that a student has to pay $12,000 a year to attend UNLV when the residents are paying a few hundred to $1,500 a semester.

"I have had department heads and their administrative assistants tell me Sabrina could go back to California" for in-state tuition, Dal Porto said. "It does not matter to them that she chose UNLV and that she is in a sorority that she loves at UNLV."

The proposed changes to the current policy will help clarify how someone classified as a non-resident like Herrrera can be reclassified as a resident, but it will still be an uphill battle.

Because the state pays about three-fourths of the tuition for resident students, university system officials say they want to make sure that only true residents are receiving the benefit.

Once they've started as out-of-state students, students like Herrera have to provide a minimum of eight forms of documentation to prove they are in-state students, one of which is an income tax form from their parents that shows they are no longer dependents.

Sisolak and other regents say they want to find a balance in which they prevent people from becoming residents just to get an education and leave, but also to allow those who legitimately move here to stay to reap the benefits of the state's higher education system.

"We need to make it accessible for people who are legitimately making Nevada their home," Sisolak said.