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| Credit Card Tuition Payments To Become A Thing Of The Past | ||||||
| The A.S. Senate met Wednesday to discuss the university's plan to discontinue accepting credit card payments for student tuition beginning on June 1, 2004. | ||||||
| According to Cal State Long Beach's associate vice president of Finance Management, Joe Latter, the reason for the change in payment options stems from the inflating cost the university incurs from students utilizing this type of payment. | ||||||
| "Ten years ago only 15 percent of students [paid for tuition with credit cards]; now that statistic is up to 65 percent of students," Latter said, and because of this increase the cost to the university "is expected to exceed $800,000 in the next year."� When the system started ten years ago, the "cost to the campus was approximately $100,000," Latter added. | ||||||
| The university is hoping to make this transition smooth, and will offer three new payment methods to help students pay their tuition.� The new processes involve using a debit card in person; paying with an "e-check" over the Internet; or paying with a credit card through a third party vendor called SmartPay, which will be integrated into My.CSULB.� Students who do pay with SmartPay will be subject to a 2.9-percent convenience fee, which Latter said comes to "about $35."� According to Latter, Forty Niner Shops, Inc. is not subject to the discontinuation of credit card payments, but parking and housing are. | ||||||
| "We reluctantly reached this decision," Latter told the Senate regarding the payment change, "but the impact for fall will be relatively minimal and would affect mostly incoming freshman." | ||||||
| Several senators were concerned about the possible confusion among students on implementing the new plan but were assured by Latter that the university is planning on addressing that issue. | ||||||
| "We are going to start a communication plan similar to the one that took place during the last pay change to let students know what is going on," Latter said.� Latter also assured the Senate that the 2.9-percent convenience charge was "the lowest the university could get." | ||||||
| According to Latter, this new plan "puts the cost of credit card usage only on those students using credit cards."� Eleven campuses have already begun using SmartPay with little problem and Latter does not believe there will be any security issues with the program, but the university is testing it for possible problems. | ||||||
| In other news, 20 students from A.S.I. and the political science department will be traveling to Sacramento Friday to lobby state and local legislators about certain issues that directly affect students of higher education.� According to A.S.I. treasurer, Mike Johnson, the purpose of the students' trip to the capital is to "protect financial aid increasing incrementally with the fee increases, [to defend] the outreach program/EOP, and to argue in support of a textbook bill."� He also noted that the "legislators don't necessarily realize the long term implications of their decisions," and believes that "no one else is going to help defend the value of public education." | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2004, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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