After last week’s article about changes in housing, some students were confused about how utilities would be handled for residents of Mustang Village, formerly The Grove. Michael Mills, director of housing, said that students who live in Mustang Village will not pay utilities out of pocket as long as they sign their lease through Midwestern State University.
“Midwestern is signing a lease for those units and students are leasing those from us. We’re making arrangements under a master lease,” Mills said. “Midwestern is going to charge all utilities included.”
Mills said students won’t receive any additional charges from university housing, but that doesn’t mean that students can use electricity in excess of normal amounts.
“If we know your apartment is double the average in housing, then we might send you a general reminder on how to conserve electricity, but no we’re not planning on assessing any additional fees on top of what we charge,” Mills said.
Tonya Fischer, leasing and sales manager for Mustang Village, said most students there don’t use more than about $25 of electricity each month.
“It differs on usage,” Fischer said. “We’ve roughly rounded it to about $25 per person, but nine out of 10 times people don’t use that much. Usually just around $20.”
Summer school incentive
Mills said the Housing Department will offer a new plan this summer to entice residents into taking summer classes. If a resident student enrolls in a 3-hour course and finishes with at least a 2.0 in the class, $100 will be deducted from their housing bill for the summer term in which they enrolled. If a student takes 6 hours, $250 will be deducted.
“If you are enrolled in three hours, as of the first class day you will only be charged for housing minus $100,” Mills said. Students will also be required to earn a 2.0 GPA in the class and must finish the class.
For example, a 4-bedroom apartment at Sunwatcher Village costs $330 for Summer I, and another $330 for Summer II.
“If you don’t take any classes during the summer, that’s what you would pay, $660 over the course of the summer,” Mills said. “If you took three hours in Summer I, we would give you $100 credit. We would only bill your account for $230.”
Mills said students who take 6 hours or more would earn $250 credit, meaning that that 4-bedroom apartment in Sunwatcher would only cost $80 per summer semester. He also said that although rates for housing vary, the credit earned for taking classes will remain flat, so taking a 3-hour course will only reduce a resident’s rate by $100 regardless of where they live. No more, no less.
“We want our students to graduate, and we want them to graduate on time. Students can speed up their graduation through summer school,” Mills said. “You’re even seeing that through the university’s fixed-rate tuition plan. It’s part of the incentive to get in and get out.”
Marilyn Fowlé, vice president of business affairs and finance, first introduced the fixed-rate tuition plan to students at a student government meeting in February. She said that students who are close to moving up a classification can take courses this summer and qualify for the lower rate offered to upperclassmen.
“It lowers the cost of going to school. The faster you get through school, the faster you get a job and start making money,” Fowlé said. “Housing is a really good deal for students to take advantage of and get discounts if they take classes.”
Fowlé said this plan could also benefit the university if it manages to increase the amount of students enrolled in the summer because the state starts tracking enrollment numbers in the summer. The legislature then uses those figures to determine the funding they will provide for each state school.
“We’d like enrollment numbers up high as possible. Every other year the state looks at the numbers and our financing is based on that for the next two years,” Fowlé said. “If we have 20 percent more next summer, well tough luck. It doesn’t matter because it’s locked in every two years.”
Dean of Students Matthew Park said the fixed-rate tuition plan combined with the new summer housing incentive could help encourage students to finish school as quickly as possible.
“There’s a great benefit for students in they take advantage of this summer housing program because essentially they could be receiving up to $500 back,” Park said. “This is a sort of way that housing can help the students and help the institution in the big picture.”