Students who enrolled at NIU in the fall of 2004 will see their tuition rates rise unless they apply for an extension by Dec. 1.

The reason for the raise is found in the state-mandated Truth in Tuition policy. The policy guarantees a student four years of a fixed tuition rate starting with the semester they enrolled in.

The policy allows one grace semester after eight semesters of enrollment.

These affected students will see their tuition rates rise to the fall 2006 level, said Brent Gage, assistant vice provost of enrollment services. That means a student enrolled in 15 credit hours will now pay $185 a credit hour instead of $153.

This will affect about 1,000 students, although 400 of those students will graduate at the end of this semester.

When applying for the extension, Gage said students have to list the reasons as to why they need the extra semester. Reasons like repeatedly dropping courses and changes of major are, however, “not really reasons for us to extend the Truth in Tuition policy.”

Legitimate reasons include withdrawals from the university because of military service or medical reasons.

Another reason could be a change in degree requirements.

“If your program decided to change your degree requirements so that you would need an extra semester, that would merit an extension,” said Deborah Robertson, acting associate dean of the College of Visual Arts and Sciences.

Because the policy was enacted in 2004, this is the first time there will be a bump in tuition rates, Gage said. In addition, the affected students will have to ask for an extension for every semester.

“The likelihood of someone getting three extensions is highly unlikely,” Gage said.

The applications for extension are turned into the students’ respective college office. For example, a political science student would turn in his application to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Robertson said it is her decision as to whether or not visual arts students get an extension on tuition rates.

“I need to see if it fits the rationale by the university to see if they receive that,” Robertson said.

Robertson said if a student’s reasons for an extension do not neatly fit the university’s rationale, it would be possible to make an appeal.