UCF extends its in-state tuition time for evacuees

The University of Central Florida will offer in-state tuition to students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands through the spring 2019 semester, the board of trustees decided Thursday.

More than 200 students from the islands have enrolled at UCF since Hurricanes Maria and Irma hit in September, and they’ve been eligible to pay in-state tuition for this semester, rather than the much higher out-of-state rate. The change will save students thousands of dollars each semester: Tuition for a fulltime, in-state UCF student is about $3,200 per semester. For an out-ofstate student, it’s about $11,200.

The additional cost to the university is negligible, said Maribeth Ehasz, the vice president of development and enrollment services, because the students are enrolling in courses that aren’t full. “They are paying tuition we would not have received otherwise,” she said.

Ehasz said the university is investigating whether students who arrived here since the hurricanes will meet the in-state tuition residency requirements by next spring, which will make them eligible to continue paying the lower tuition rate. UCF students from Puerto Rico who enrolled before the hurricanes also are receiving in-state tuition.

The university is not the only Central Florida institution that offered in-state tuition to displaced students this semester. Valencia College will offer in-state tuition through the summer semester, and college leaders are still discussing what to do after that. Seminole State College offered in-state tuition to students from Houston, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for up to a year after the date they apply.

The University of Florida has offered tuition-free online courses to students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands through the summer semester.

Ehasz said the university received 1,135 applications from displaced students after the hurricanes and admitted 358 of them. Several hundred did not have complete files, and the rest were referred to state colleges that are part of the Direct Connect program, which offers guaranteed admission to UCF for students who receive Associate of Arts degrees.

She said many of the new students attend school part-time, juggling jobs and other responsibilities, and commuting to the university, some as much as an hour each way.

The cost of attending UCF is a major concern for students who arrived since the hurricanes, said Jose Rivera, 20, founder and president of the Puerto Rican Student Association.

“We strongly believe that one academic year, until spring 2019, will make a difference in the life of students,” he said.

With that in mind, he said he asked trustee Nick Larkins, who is also the Student Government Association president, for help.

Larkins, who made the motion to extend the in-state tuition waivers during Thursday’s board of trustees meeting, said he felt it was his colleagues’ “duty to help the students of Puerto Rico.”

“All they want is to finish their education and return to normal as soon as possible,” he said.

Alejandro Chardon, 21, a junior from Puerto Rico who is completing his second week at UCF, said news that he could receive in-state tuition through next spring is “fantastic.” He said he now intends to

stay at UCF and complete his degree in health services administration.

“It was a difficult process,” he said, speaking about transferring to UCF during the meeting, before the board’s decision. “This was not something that we had planned and we’ve now incurred new expenses, a new way of living and what we are asking for is an extension in our waiver so we can have it 12 months.”

“I think the students have really gone through hardship that is extraordinary,” Ehasz said. “Not only their homes but their dreams for the future were crushed in some regard.”