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Appeals Court Finds for Students on in-State Tuition

Posted on: Friday, 24 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun

Feb. 24--The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled yesterday in favor of four University of Maryland students who believed they had been unfairly denied lower in-state tuition. The plaintiffs - students in the law, dental and nursing schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore - challenged the way in which the system decides whether a student qualifies for the advantageous in-state tuition. Their attorney, Anthony Conti, called the opinion "monumental" because it says the process for deciding a student's residency in the state is unconstitutional. Potentially, he said, the university system might have to reimburse thousands of students whose petitions for in-state tuition were denied between 2000 and 2004. Students who live in Maryland pay thousands of dollars less in tuition, and therefore, many students try to get residency status after their first year at the University of Maryland. For instance, students at College Park who live out of state are paying $20,000 this year, compared with $7,800 paid by those who live in the state. Fair method sought In its opinion, the court ordered the university system to scrap its system of deciding whether a student qualifies for the cheaper tuition and create a new one that is more fair. The court sent the case back to the Baltimore Circuit Court to decide several other issues, including whether the students would be reimbursed for the additional tuition they paid. If the decision by Maryland's second-highest court stands, any student who came to Maryland and worked a summer job, registered to vote and rented an apartment would be able to qualify for in-state tuition in subsequent years, according to Conti.

The decision is likely to be appealed, Conti believes. University System of Maryland leaders had not had time to read the opinion and had no comment, according to Liz O'Neill, a spokeswoman. Assistant Attorney General Dawna Cobb, who represents the university system, said she had not finished reading the decision and could not comment. Residency at issue Currently, students who apply for the residency tuition status must prove that they live in the state - which is not difficult to establish - and that a person with a residence outside the state is not paying 50 percent or more of their living expenses. But in that equation, Conti said, the state does not allow a student to count an education loan as income while counting tuition as an expense. Under the rule, Conti said, it is difficult for a student receiving financial aid to qualify. The court agreed that students who attend classes full time nine months a year are unlikely to earn half of their yearly tuition and living expenses. As long as UM requires that tuition must be counted as a student expense and that scholarships and loans are excluded from income, the court said, large numbers of students will be excluded from getting the in-state status that gives them cheaper tuition.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Baltimore Sun

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Source: The Baltimore Sun, Maryland

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