How many credit hours are you taking this semester? Twelve? Fifteen? Eighteen?

How would you feel if U. Central Florida decided to charge a flat tuition rate for full-time students no matter how many credit hours they were enrolled in?

Well, this is a plan that is currently being debated by the board of governors. If adopted as early as November, the plan could be enforced at some schools for fall 2011.

I have a problem with this plan for a couple reasons.

A Sept. 19 article in the Orlando Sentinel said, “The system’s board of governors is considering a plan that backers hope would push students to graduate on time or even early.”

Since when is the system striving to get students to graduate early? Is it not enough just to get them to graduate on time?

Not only that, but putting a flat rate on tuition isn’t going to speed up the process. It’s not going to make students think they have to take on a couple more classes every semester to hurry up and graduate.

Therefore, I don’t see trying to push students to graduate early being a tangible reason for having this plan.

I realize the state has high hopes for its students, but trying to persuade us to graduate in less than four years and by these means is not going to influence as many people as they expect.

Another line from the Sentinel article read, “At Florida schools, full-time students need to average 15 credit hours per semester to graduate in four years – the equivalent of five classes. But some full-time students take 12 credit hours and others take 18.”

Yes, this is true. However, they are failing to mention the summer semester during which many students complete classes, which would make up for not taking 15 credit hours in the fall or spring semesters.

They are also not taking into consideration the fact that all courses are not created equal when it comes to how many credit hours they are worth.

For example, two different students could be enrolled in four classes each, but one could only be receiving 12 credit hours and the other 16, depending on the courses they are taking.

Most English courses are only three credit hours, whereas most science courses are four credit hours. It’s not fair to, in a way, punish those students whose majors are composed of courses that are worth fewer credit hours than others.

I feel it best to stay away from this block tuition plan and continue to charge per unit like has been successfully working for years.

There’s no need to bring this new plan into action when the reasoning isn’t really practical and the outcome wouldn’t be fair to all students.