By 
Photo courtesy of the communication office of IUSB.
By: RYAN LOHMAN
Managing Editor
editorpreface@gmail.com
Starting in the fall of 2016, IU students will no longer pay tuition per credit hour if they take more than 12 credit hours per semester.
Instead students will pay “the same fee for any course load between 12 and 18 hours,” according to a statement from Chancellor Terry Allison.
In the statement released Nov. 22, Allison said all campuses of the IU system will move to a banded tuition rate, “designed to encourage students to complete 15 credits a semester and reward those who take more than 15 credits with tuition savings.”
That means those who plan to take 12 credit hours will pay for an additional three credit hours whether or not they actually enroll for that many hours of class, and those who take 18 credit hours will not pay for the three of the credits. Credit hours in excess of 18 will be charged at the same per hour rate used to calculate the cost for course loads less than 12.
“I especially encourage students currently taking less than 15 credits a semester to begin thinking about how you can reach that level beginning in fall 2016, so you can graduate faster with less debt,” Allison said in the statement.
The change is the latest part of the “15 to Finish” campaign from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, a state agency that oversees all public universities and colleges in Indiana.
The commission passed a resolution in August 2014 recommending the adoption of banded tuition for Indiana schools, citing the statistic that “seven in 10 students at Indiana public institutions that charge banded tuition take 15 credits in a semester compared to two in 10 at institutions that charge by the credit hour.”
The resolution also urges those schools that adopt a banded tuition rate “to select a tuition rate that does not unnecessarily raise tuition for students currently taking 12 credits.” The banded tuition IU will adopt will raise tuition for these students, according to Allison’s statement.
Though the new tuition rate does not apply until fall of 2016, current tuition rates may not accurately reflect what the cost will be at that time, said IUSB bursar Linda Lucas. The IU board of trustees will release tuition rates for the fall of 2016 some time during the summer of 2016, Lucas said.
Based on current rates, 15 credit hours costs an in-state undergraduate $3,196.50, according to the website of the Office of the Bursar.
Curious why there is not more concern brought up by news coverage of the lack of food services in some of the other buildings. I hear they are closing the SAC food area? The Northside area was closed mid semester last year when it just started to get good and busy. Seems like school is not getting its money’s worth from food service… just an observation. I have not heard anything about it from Student Government or the Preface….