The Olympian

Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Sophie Siemion

For students struggling to come up with the funds to pay the rising cost of tuition at Olympic College, a little relief is going a long way with the newly revised Student Tuition Easy Payment Plan.
"The STEPP program allows students to make payments towards tuition," said OC Director of Fiscal Services Janell Whiteley.
The payment plan, based on a Columbia Basin College plan, was originally implemented in the fall of 2000 and required students to pay their full tuition in three payments prior to the beginning of the quarter.
The pilot program that began at the start of winter quarter rearranged the payment schedule so students could start taking classes without having to pay the full cost of their classes until six weeks into the quarter.
Participants were asked to pay 25 percent of their tuition when they registered and pay the remaining balance of their tuition on or before Feb. 15.
"We allow students to have that flexibility. Now you can buy your books," Whiteley said. She added the plan makes it easier for students to buy their books sooner because they don't have to spend all their money on tuition all at one time.
The program will also be available during the summer quarter, something that was not done in the past because of the constraints of the payment schedule. Because there is not three months between the spring and summer quarter, students would have had to start making payments for the summer quarter while they were still making payments for the spring.
"It was an extra burden for students," Whiteley said. "It didn't work with the way we had the program set up."
Another amendment to the original plan was the abolition of late fees. Whiteley said the logistics of charging late fees was labor intensive and begged the question, "How late is late?"
With the pilot program, if participants fail to pay off their tuition by the deadline, their entire tuition is due in full within two business days or they are removed from the program. Students are still able to complete the courses they enroll in but they are not given grades or transcripts until they make good on their debts.
The pilot program has helped 460 students pay for college who would have otherwise had to postpone the college education until they could save the money.

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