8/17/2016: This article has been updated to reflect additional information from the campus and ASUC President Will Morrow.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs announced in a campuswide email Wednesday that the deadline for the campus’ new cancel for nonpayment policy will be extended following negotiations with the ASUC.
The policy — which faced widespread student criticism since it was announced in July — required undergraduate students to pay 20 percent of their semester tuition by Aug. 19 or be dropped from their enrolled courses. In accordance with the new policy, students now have until Aug. 30 to pay 20 percent of their tuition without their enrollment being canceled.
“(We’ve heard) major concerns about the impact of the policy,” said campus spokesperson Adam Ratliff. “We wanted to allow students to have a little more time.”
While the deadline to pay will remain Aug. 19, no students will be dropped on that day if they fail to pay. Students who do not pay their bill by Aug. 19 will receive a notification in CalCentral asking to confirm if they plan to attend or if they wish to cancel their enrollment.
Students who confirm that they plan to attend will be allowed to remain enrolled in classes until Aug. 3o. If the students do not respond to the notification by that date, however, they will be dropped.
Like before, in-state students will be required to pay $1,351.65 and out-of-state students will be required to pay $4,019.85.
The original cancel for nonpayment policy moved the deadline for tuition payment up 26 days from last year.
Earlier this month, the ASUC inter-semester committee unanimously passed a bill declaring the ASUC’s opposition to the policy. A protest organized by student activists and ASUC senators is scheduled for Friday.
According to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Harry Le Grande in the campuswide email announcing the policy, the change was intended to allow course waitlists to be processed more efficiently, reducing the number of vacant seats left by students who later do not attend the term. The total number of these students, however, has not been released.
In accordance with the new policy, standard fees for all enrolled students will be applied on Aug. 23 and must be paid whether or not the student drops the course after that date. This fee system was put in place to prevent students from staying enrolled in classes that they intend to drop later in the semester.
The ASUC plans to send out a survey in order to collect data on how students have responded to the policy in order to offer input to the campus regarding possible improvements of the policy for the spring semester.
“The pushing back of the deadline is by no means an ideal solution” Morrow said. “But it is a measure that does recognize the difficulty so many students were facing.”
The financial aid office will begin to disperse funds Aug. 15. Students will also still be able to apply for emergency loans—which can cover up to the full amount required of in-state students by the extended deadline or about one third of the amount required of out-of-state students—beginning Aug. 17.
Members of the Cal Central team have also been reaching out to at-risk students for the past several days to make them aware of different payment options, according to Ratliff.
Check back for updates.
