MANKATO — Any anxiety over the new Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system policy on prompt payment of tuition seems to have subsided.
The policy requires all students to either have paid at least 15 percent of their bill or $300, filled out a financial aid application or made payment arrangements through a third party, such as the military or scholarship-granting organization.
Not doing one of the above results in cancellation of registration.
South Central College officials feared their numbers of dropped students could have been as high as 250. But by the end of Friday, the number dropped was just 14.
Ann Splinter, SCC's marketing and public relations director, said they did several things over the past few months to make sure students knew about the new policy and how it worked.
They sent post cards to all students, started a call campaign carried out by a firm that does work with financial aid, and had faculty make phone calls to students.
"It was pretty awesome. A real team effort," Splinter said. "Hopefully once we're past this and our students are accustomed to this, I don't think it's going to be as big of an issue anymore."
At Minnesota State University, a small percentage of its 14,000 students are in danger of being dropped by Tuesday, the final day tuition payments will be accepted.
It's still early enough in the semester where students are still allowed to drop or add classes at MSU, so it's too early to tell for sure how many students will be dropped. But by Friday afternoon, the number of students in danger of being dropped was 113, and university officials expected it to dip below 100 by next week.
"We've been monitoring this yesterday and today and the number has been going down as students are taking care of their payments," said MSU spokesman Michael Cooper.
An unexpected benefit has resulted from the new policy, Cooper said. Many students have chosen to comply with the new policy by making sure they've applied for financial aid. And many of them have received that aid earlier.
During early registration in early August, 134 students had their registrations canceled as per the terms of the new policy. Almost 90 of those students, however, re-enrolled.
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