After determining that dollars can sometimes speak louder than words on shiny campus brochures and praise from the mouths of recruiters, SIUC administrators are trumpeting a new recruitment strategy for international and commuting out-of-state students.

The strategy involves lowering those students’ tuition costs a more than fair move, considering these students pay three times the tuition rate of SIUC’s in-state students.

SIUC’s international enrollment, once ranking eighth in the nation, saw a 30-percent decrease from 1993 to spring 1997 alone. Lowering international and out-of-state tuition costs to a figure only twice the amount of an in-state student’s tuition lessens these students’ financial burdens considerably. Affordability is known to be a major factor in the decision to attend colleges for a number of students.

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Although hesitant to place the blame solely on tuition costs, SIUC Chancellor Don Beggs cites the $4,050 for 15 hours currently asked of international and out-of-state students as part of the reason for the drop in international enrollment. We agree international enrollment is contingent on any number of factors, ranging from immigration laws to recruitment strategies.

Still after comparing the $4,050 tuition to the $1,350 tuition charged to in-state students for the same amount of hours, the Daily Egyptian suggested a re-examination of SIUC’s tuition policies toward international students earlier in the school year. The importance of treating these students fairly cannot be underestimated.

And lowering out-of-state commuters’ tuitions also merits our wholehearted approval.

Out-of-state students who choose to establish Illinois residency can do so in 90 days. That means that they typically pay only one semester of the expensive out-of-state tuition, and then are able to pay in-state tuition rates. But out-of-state students with homes, families entire lives in areas just across the Illinois border are forced to pay through the nose.

Again, lowering this group’s tuition is the fair thing to do, and it would result in an upswing for SIUC’s regional recruitment efforts.

Actually, spreading news of this plan would do wonders for both international and regional recruiting. So SIUC administrators should not halt any existing recruiting in anticipation of slashing tuition. Effective recruiting still is a trusted way of telling students what SIUC has to offer. Together, lowered tuition and excellent recruiting methods could be an indomitable tag-team against sagging enrollment figures.

Board of Trustee members would do well to consider these arguments and vote their approval in February.

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