Until 2007, some residents of Missionary Ridge and some residents inches outside of East Brainerd had to pay out-of-state tuition if they wanted to attend what they likely considered their hometown school, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
They lived in Georgia, after all, and Georgia was out of state.
The situation - after being discussed by the university for at least 30 years - was remedied somewhat in 2007, when UTC began to offer juniors and seniors from Catoosa, Dade, Fannin, Walker and Whitfield counties in Georgia and Jackson County in Alabama in-state tuition (plus 25 percent of out-of-state tuition).
Graduate students were offered the same rate scale in 2009.
It was a decision that made sense for UTC because Chattanooga and Hamilton County border Georgia, and Alabama is not too far down Interstate 59 from the Scenic City.
For the 2016-2017 school year, it's a difference between an out-of-state total of $12,331 and $6,287 (in-state fees plus a quarter of out-of-state tuition).
Earlier this week, the university agreed to allow freshmen and sophomores in good academic standing that same privilege. The new regional rates for the aforementioned counties will go into effect for the fall 2017 semester and will apply to both full-time and part-time students.
We think that's a smart way to grow the university and provides a more economical solution for Georgia and Alabama students who can afford a public university but perhaps not the expenses of living on campuses in the likes of Athens or Tuscaloosa.
UTC dropped 16 percent in freshmen enrollment from the fall of 2014 to the fall of 2015, but it grew 11.5 percent from the fall of 2015 to the fall of 2015, according to Times Free Press archives. At the time, the drop was thought to be a factor of the state's last-dollar Tennessee Promise scholarship for community colleges and technical institutes. Nevertheless, the 2016 freshman class was the second smallest since 2010, university officials said.
The regional rate expansion has been the school's most requested enrollment change for years, university officials said. Since 2007, they said, participants using the regional rates have paid more than $3 million in tuition.
"These students and their families who live just beyond the state lines are part of the greater Chattanooga area," UTC Chancellor Dr. Steve Angle said in a news release. "They are part of our community. Many of them work and shop in Chattanooga. They definitely contribute to the economic growth and cultural vitality of this community. Expansion of our regional tuition rate allows us to better serve the educational needs of this entire area."