PITTSBURGH Students enrolled in 16-plus credit hours may face fee

The measure is intended to discourage students from 'course shopping.'
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The practice of "course shopping," taking more classes than college students intend to complete, has long been a practice used to shed least favorite courses early in the semester.
With enrollment hitting 104,000 at state universities in the fall, however, a new proposal to make campuses run more efficiently could mean higher tuition next year for those seeking insurance against unwanted classes. Critics say the proposal would simply hurt ambitious students.
A plan sought by the State System of Higher Education would lower the total number of classes students can take under the basic tuition plan from 18 credits to 16 credits.
Seats emptied by students who drop courses are "wasted" because it is usually too late to open up the class to those who really need the credits, said Judy Hample, state system chancellor.
"The professor can't take in another student who actually needs that course," Hample told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "You lose efficiency. You lose the ability to have students in the course who would take the course and stick with it."
Another fee
With in-state tuition now costing $4,598 at the state's 14 universities, among the highest in the nation, critics say dropping the number of credits available to students without an extra charge is unacceptable.
"Students are going to be livid," said Patricia Heilman, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and negotiator for the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. "This is another way of smacking them with another fee. Every time they turn around they are getting smacked with a new fee."
The proposal calls for a $192 fee for every credit hour over 16, the same fee now paid by students who enroll for more than 18 credits.
Heilman said the measure would penalize students who want to complete a degree early and those seeking a double major.
"In order to do that, many times they need to take more than 30 credits a year," she said.
Students affected
About 12,200 students, 13 percent of the system's 94,000 undergraduates, take more than 16 credits, Hample said.
"The student who has to pay for additional hours going into the situation is going to be less likely to enroll in those hours unless they are serious about finishing them," she said.
Additionally, a recent decision to reduce the number of credits needed to graduate from about 132 to a uniform 120 credits is expected to reduce the number of affected students even more.
Heilman said her concern is for the students who have to take more than 16 credits in a semester.
"I cannot think of a student among any of my advisees who in the course of four years did not need to take a 17- or 18-credit semester," she said.
The proposal will likely be brought up before the Jan. 8 meeting of the State System's board of governors.
If endorsed by the board's academic and student affairs committee, it would go before the full board for a vote later in the day and would take effect in fall 2004.