Kirkwood Community College ups tuition deadline to lower risk

The more than 15,000 students expected to take classes at Kirkwood Community College this fall will have to pay their tuition - or at least make payment arrangements - earlier than in the past.

Instead of being due by one week before classes begin on Aug. 25, students will have to pay by Aug. 11 - two weeks before classes resume. Students who don't pay in time or don't have arrangements in place will be removed from classes and deregistered, said Kristie Fisher, vice president of student services for Kirkwood.

The change comes as the Cedar Rapids-based community college tries to lower its risk 'by significantly reducing the amount of unpaid balances at the end of the fiscal year,” according to a message Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich sent to the campus community Tuesday.

In the message, Starcevich said Kirkwood over the past five budget years has been owed millions in outstanding student receivables.

'This represents $10 million of cash that hasn't been received by the college for services that have been provided to students,” Starcevich said in the message.

Fisher said the change will allow Kirkwood to better recognize actual revenue on its books and be more efficient in removing students from classes who might have changed their mind about attending. She said the issue is more about accurate accounting than actual cash impact.

'Before, we would recognize the revenue and plan for bad debt to offset that,” Fisher said. 'Now we won't have to do that.”

The change follows a review of Kirkwood's current fiscal practices. Kirkwood, as part of that review, asked a team to study collection and tuition due policies and develop a process to lower its risk by reducing unpaid balances.

Under the new system, students who register for classes after Aug. 11 - within two weeks of the semester's start - will have three days to make payment arraignments or be subject to de-registration. Starcevich, in his message, said 'an aggressive communication plan is underway to make students aware of where they are in the payment arrangement process.”

'As the new system rolls out, students will receive reminders of their payment arrangement needs via emails, postcards and personal phone calls,” Starcevich said.

Payment arrangements include paying in full by cash, check or credit card; paying through an outside agency; using financial aid that is ready to disburse to the student's account; or getting on a payment plan with the college.

Fisher said Kirkwood works with students who can't make tuition payments by the deadline and need help finding financial aid or scheduling payments. Before, she said, Kirkwood used a third-party vendor to set up student payment plans, and now the college is providing the service 'in house.”

'(The third party) was more rigid than we would have liked,” she said. 'Now we can work with each student individually to figure out what works best for them.”

In his message to the campus community, Starcevich said the new process will force students to finalize payment plans at a time 'when traffic is already very high across all departments.”

He stressed that staff are responsible for being available to help ease the transition.

'I expect all offices with credit student traffic to respond to this service expectation,” he said. 'I expect everyone to be available and ready to assist students and direct them to the right area.”

Kirkwood's enrollment seems to be on track with last fall, which saw 15,345 students, according to Fisher. She said the change in when payment arrangements are due could cause a slight dip in enrollment in the first semester, as students get familiar with the new expectations.

'After that, I don't think there will be any impact,” she said.