KSC students taking early morning classes could see drop in tuition

Students may see a drop in tuition prices as an incentive to take early morning and Friday classes.

Senior and Student Trustee John Ouellette said the members of the Board of Trustees met in early December before Keene State College closed for winter break to discuss options for the college and its environmental sustainability issues.

"During one of our [meetings] to help out environmental sustainability was how to use our buildings to the most efficient [way] as possible. That's when the idea of helping with tuition and also utilizing our buildings to the fullest came up by one of our trustees," said Ouellette.

Ouellette said the idea of a tuition decrease for students choosing to take earlier classes during the day was discussed during a brainstorming session and stressed that nothing is finalized.

"I want to make it clear to the students that this is not etched in stone. This was an idea that I brought up for feedback from the students which has been well received," said Ouellette.

Ouellette gave an example on what the tuition decrease could entail, citing it to credit hours.

"It would be based off of credit hours. So for example, say you paid $100 for every credit hour per class, you may only have to pay $75 per credit hour if you took the earlier class," he said.

Ouellette said the reason why the subject came about was because of the large cost spent to keep the buildings running throughout the year.

"We are spending millions of dollars on these buildings, and on Fridays they are not being utilized by our students the most. A lot of the doors are closed and the lights are on which adds up the cost, and we said to utilize our buildings in the mornings and also on Fridays, we came up with the idea of maybe offering students a little bit of a break to get students to classes a little bit earlier during those days," said Ouellette.

University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Stephen Reno said the members of the Board of Trustees are always looking for new ways to keep tuition at an affordable cost.

"The Board really are concerned with the amount of debt students face today with college tuition, and anything that would lower or raise it would be something the Board would be very interested in discussing," said Reno.

Reno said in order for any change for the tuition costs within the college to go into effect, it must be approved by the members of the Board of Trustees.

Before getting to the point of approval, Reno said the idea of a change must originate on the KSC campus and be brought to the members of Student Assembly. Student Assembly would then meet with President Helen Giles-Gee, and she would propose the change to the All President's Council.

After presenting it to the All President's Council, it would then be presented to the members of the Board of Trustees.

"So really there would be two to three discussions in Keene alone before it would go before the Board," said Reno.

Reno said another possibility for the college to utilize its academic facilities more often is to have an extensive summer session with an additional number of credit classes offered.

He said it would not be quite as full as the fall semester, but it may encourage students to think of doing year-round academics rather than the two semesters in place.

"We are thinking about trying out maybe a more in depth summer session with more classes; not totally like fall semester, but more than the summer session is now," said Reno.

The University of California System has already decided to expand their summer session into more of a semester.

According to a University of California System Web site article, the transition hopes to bring a lot of positive change within the colleges.

"Expanding instruction during the summer will make efficient use of our facilities, help some students graduate earlier, reduce the impacts of growth during the traditional academic year, and provide innovative new academic opportunities," said C. Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Sophomore Ryan Kent said his opinion on taking earlier and Friday classes wouldn't change unless it was a noticeable change in prices.

"It wouldn't make a difference for me. It depends how much of a break it would be," he said.

Senior Will Merchant expressed his approval for the possible change.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea. I suppose I would utilize it," said Merchant.