Question is whether tuition idea would help or drive away students

Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

To entice more students to go to school full time, UNLV officials have tried to make their campus more appealing over the years. Recent additions include a new student union with eateries and study lounges, and a 184,000-square-foot recreation center with an indoor track, gym and lap pool.

Now college leaders trying to find a new incentive for full-time attendance are weighing a fee proposal that some students view as punitive.

Under a plan proposed by a Nevada System of Higher Education committee, undergraduates at UNLV and all other state schools who take from 12 to 18 credits would pay for 15 credits.

The plan's backers hope it will give students an incentive to take more classes and graduate more quickly. Students who enroll for 12 credits would be encouraged to take 15 because they'll be paying for 15. Those enrolled in 18 would get a price break.

"I strongly endorse it," UNR President Milt Glick said.

"We know students learn better when they are fully engaged. We know they are more likely to graduate when they take a full load."

Speaking to College of Southern Nevada students Friday, Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich emphasized that before implementing a change, higher education officials would need to get more information on how such a fee structure would affect students.

At this point, the committee is proposing only that the Board of Regents, which governs higher education, explore the 12-18 system, known as a fee "plateau" or "bracket." Klaich said he couldn't imagine its going into effect before fall 2009.

Some students think the proposal could backfire, turning part-timers into dropouts and encouraging others to take more classes than they can handle.

"People would probably go to lesser credits to avoid the fees or simply transfer over to the community college," said Leyla Downes, a senior studying international business. Students taking fewer than 12 units would continue to pay per credit.

"I don't think I'd even finish here. I'd go somewhere else," Downes said.

Besides the plateau, the fee committee is recommending hikes of about 5 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Downes, who works about 30 hours a week as a saleswoman at the Forum Shops in Caesars Palace, takes 12 credits. She receives a Millennium Scholarship, which pays for $80 of each of her first 12 credits, and said she can't afford to pay for more.

The bracket would amount to a de facto fee increase for students such as her.

Downes pointed out that many of her peers have children and full-time jobs. Though Nevada's fees are low compared with those in surrounding states, "that's a lot of money for a lot of people," she said.

CSN Student Body President Taylor Gray said the fee structure, meant to encourage full-time enrollment, contradicts the mission of schools that are meant to serve part-time students.

The proposal could work for universities, but "I think it would adversely affect the community colleges," he said.

Regents will hear the fee proposal at their meeting in February. Regents Chairman Michael Wixom and Regent Steve Sisolak said the idea merits discussion.

State funding for schools is based largely on enrollment, and colleges get less money for students who sign up for fewer hours. Students who take six or seven years - or longer - to graduate place a burden on departments such as counseling, Wixom said.

Still, Sisolak wondered whether the fee plan could have unintended consequences.

"These kids are under such financial pressure," he said.

He worries that students would be tempted to take more classes than they could complete.

Or they might sign up for and then drop "free" classes, wreaking havoc on the university system at the start of the semester.

Sisolak wants to know why administrators think the proposal will work.

UNLV President David Ashley believes the plan would be effective because students want to get the most education for their money. He remembers that in his undergraduate years in the early 1970s students paid a flat fee for however many credits they wanted to take. They also generally graduated in four years. (Ashley went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

Ashley believes good advisers would prevent students from taking more classes than they could handle.

Still, Ashley admits the plan might not be perfect. Maybe, he said, the university system could adopt a plateau but charge for 12 units rather than 15.

Ultimately, Ashley and Glick agree that providing students with access to better and more financial aid would make attending full time an attractive option for more people.

Chelsea Milko, a student government senator at UNLV, said she likes the idea of encouraging students to finish school faster.

But if the proposal is to work, schools need to offer enough classes to allow students to graduate more quickly, Milko said, and more financial aid would help.

"I do want to see Dan Klaich and the chancellor's office continue to research this and develop the proposal and really look at the implications that it may have on the students," she said.

A meeting between Klaich and UNLV student government representatives this month on fees "was very productive," she said. "But I hope that's not the end of the discussion with the students, because this directly affects us."