The Students’ Association Congress dissected the new plan for block tuition and grilled chief enrollment officer Kevin Campbell about it during Wednesday’s meeting.
“It is a pricing model that enables students to pay one flat rate for a block of hours,” Campbell said, introducing the plan to congress.
Most private universities are already on a flat rate model of tuition, Campbell said, and the new block tuition will help the university no longer be an outlier in this area. The plan, set to begin next fall, will equate to a 5.9 percent increase in tuition, which is the lowest for the school in more than a decade.
Under the new tuition, students have the opportunity to take anywhere between 24 and 36 hours, all for the same annual price of $26, 770. The total allotment of 36 hours can be spread among fall, spring, summer and January short courses. Furthermore, the block tuition includes Study Abroad, should a student decide to extend her learning overseas.
“One thing I do want to reiterate is we are not trying to pressure students into taking 36 hours,” Campbell said. “What we’re saying is for 30 hours you’ve broken even, at 31 you’ve benefitted and at 36 you’ve maximized.”
SA vice president Julianne Hart, senior political science major from Austin, asked Campbell about the inherent loss to seniors who need fewer than 30 hours to graduate.
Current sophomores and juniors, upon entering their final year, can be refunded for every hour less than 15 they are enrolled in. If a student is no longer full-time (fewer than 12 hours) the hourly rate will be $892.
But, in an attempt to make sure students use the full block tuition plan, Campbell explained that graduate courses taken at ACU while a student is still an undergrad will be covered. Also, he said more classes, especially those offered online will be assessable over the summer.
For the overachievers, every hour more than 36 a student enrolls in will cost $450.
SA president Connor Best said he believes the new tuition plan is an improvement over the current plan.
“Students who otherwise could not attend ACU will, hopefully, be able to come and take the full 36 hours per year while only paying for 30 hours and graduate early.”
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, SA granted $750 for students to attend conferences, including $300 to Upsilon Pi Epsilon for four students going on a conference in Dallas and $450 to a student going to Pittsburgh for the Student Social Work Association.
Two other groups requesting a total of $2,290 for conferences will be addressed next week. The final day to submit conference requests is Sept. 30.
