An editorial published on Friday’s website titled Tuition Discount Appropriate was not written by Times Free Press reporter Joan Garrett. It is a Chattanooga Times editorial that appeared on the website and Times Opinion page.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is identified by both state and city in its name, but its influence should and does extend across state and municipal borders. That is entirely appropriate. The school should serve all in its reach without concern for geography. That is the proper role of a regional rather than a parochial institution.
Regional certainly is the correct appellation for UTC. The university plays an increasingly important role in the economic, cultural and civic life of the tri-state area. Its tuition policy should reflect that truth.
For the moment it properly does so. UT board members agreed this week to extend UTC’s regional tuition discount to students from seven nearby counties in Georgia and Alabama for another year. That is a welcome course of action. A wiser one would be to expand the program and make it permanent. That would cement UTC’s commitment to students across the region.
Currently, the program gives a 75 percent discount on out-of-state tuition to students from Catoosa, Dade, Fannin, Murray, Walker and Whitfield counties in Georgia and from Jackson County in Alabama. The students still pay a premium to attend UTC, but is an equitable one — less than that students from afar but more than that paid by in-state students. The arrangement, though, is beneficial to all involved.
It allows students to save money by living at home, though not all elect to do so. UTC officials report that several dozen out-of-state students choose to live on campus. Benefits accrue to the university, as well.
The tuition waiver is limited to students with at least 60 hours of college credits — juniors and seniors for the most part. On the whole, those students have admirable academic records — a 2.98 grade-point average. Such high-achieving students bolster the overall academic climate on campus. That’s not the only contribution the students make. The waiver program increases UTC’s bottom line by as much as $200,000 a semester. That is an important consideration in difficult economic times.
That’s not lost on board members or UTC officials. The former properly worry that the program might subsidize out-of-state students at the expense of state residents, or that an influx of cross-border enrollees could make it more difficult for state residents to find space on campus. Those are sensible topics for debate at a school funded by the state, but neither is germane at the moment.
If a time comes when the reduced tuition program creates undue financial impact or disruptions of academic life on campus, then the topic should be revisited. Until then, a waiver program — employed at various times by other state universities — is a valuable asset that allows UTC to participate in widespread public and private campaigns to promote the entire region.
Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama residents and governments now work cooperatively to attract new business and industry — think Volkswagen, Alstom and Wacker — to the region and to improve educational opportunities and the area’s quality of life. UTC is ideally suited to play a major role in that on-going campaign. Its ability to provide reduced tuition to regional students enhances that effort and the school’s mission.