$200 late fee will be added after due date

Students planning to graduate in May 2010, or even considering it, need to apply for graduation by Sept. 15. Otherwise, they face paying a $200 late fee.

The date the fee will go into effect is still under discussion.

“The fee comes into effect this fall but will not be implemented until students have been fully informed of the new fee,” Senior Associate Provost Timothy Chandler wrote in an e-mail. College deans proposed the fee, and the Board of Trustees approved it in a meeting June 4.

“The college deans requested the late fee as a means of encouraging students to get their applications in on time,” Chandler wrote. “Late applications cause tremendous problems for those responsible for checking students’ graduation requirements.”

Because of Tuesday’s deadline, individual colleges are reminding students to turn in their applications.

“Right now, all we’re doing is trying to inform students, ‘Hey, this (fee) might (or) might not be the case,'” said Matt Rollyson, academic adviser coordinator for the College of Communication and Information. “So if you’re considering graduation in any way, shape or form for May or August . please make sure you apply right away.”

Rollyson said when students apply late it affects not only the departments that organize graduation, but also the students themselves. He said if students apply late, they could find out too late that they need to take more classes to graduate.

Bob Vokac, a senior mathematics major who is planning on graduating in May, said he thinks the fee is a “scare tactic.”

“It’s just a way to motivate people to do it,” he said. “I’ll make sure that I apply on time.”

Rollyson said he thinks the fee is the university’s way of telling students that graduating is their responsibility.

“In the past, there hasn’t been a really strong culture for things like that,” he said, “to stress to students that these really are important matters and it really is your responsibility to take control of your own records and your own academic success.

“And hopefully this is one of, I assume, many other changes in an attempt to change the culture of it so that students are taking more control, more responsibility for their actions.”

Contact academic affairs reporter Jamie Shearer at [email protected].