The San Mateo County Community College District’s Board of Trustees met in January to discuss the information report that details some of the effects of the district’s newly implemented Plan Ahead – Pay Ahead policy.

Skyline College’s Spring 2012 semester is the first since the enactment of the district’s new policy that requires all students to pay their fees by Jan. 4—long before the official start of the spring semester—or be dropped from their classes.

“A system was created to remind and educate students about fees and their financial responsibility for their education,” said John Mosby, Dean of Enrollment.

The information report found that approximately $1.6 million in fees were collected district wide between Jan. 1, 2012 and the Jan. 4 payment deadline, compared with only $87,000 collected during the same dates the previous year.

Mosby feels that the numbers reflect the success of the district’s new payment plan.

“I do feel the plan was effective because students had options to pay,” Mosby said.  “If students were not able to pay by the due date, they were able to use financial aid and set up a payment plan that stretched out payments over a number of months.”

According to Mosby, enrollment at Skyline College has remained relatively steady so far during the Spring 2012 semester, with only a 1-1.5 percent decrease when compared to the previous spring.

However, some feel that the increase in collected fees by the Jan. 4 deadline was not indicative of the plan’s success.

“You can’t just compare by the deadline,” said Masao Suzuki, professor of economics. “If you set a deadline and say more people paid by then, obviously people will have to. The question is, does this increase the amount of fees that the district collects overall through the course of the semester? And that’s what’s not clear.”

Much of the goal of the new Plan Ahead – Pay Ahead policy is to reduce the district’s budget deficit and to take some of the financial burden off both San Mateo County and the state of California.

“Of course the state has had a series of budget deficits for a number of years,” Suzuki said. “On one hand the district has been affected by the cuts in state contributions to funding the district, but on the other hand I feel that this payment plan is . . . in a sense putting the financial burden on the students.”

The Board of Trustees information report also noted that 7 percent of students were dropped district wide at the Jan. 4 deadline for failing to make payments or failing to set up a payment plan.

“Evidently 1500 students were dropped district wide, and I don’t think it’s the right way to go,” Suzuki said. “In the community colleges, we have been cutting back on the overall number of students that we’re serving. So in a certain sense, (the new plan) is one way to do that.”

However, despite the number of students who were dropped, the district and Skyline College did provide alternative payment methods for those students who were financially incapable of paying their fees by the deadline.

“There were definitely ways to get around being dropped without having monetary resources,” said ASSC Senator Kayla Louis. “And I feel like it was just a matter of whether the students knew that they could do that. So it’s really sad that those 7 percent got dropped, but hopefully that’ll be taken into account when they publicize next semester.”

ASSC Commissioner of Publicity Mark Lipkin agreed that ultimately the students should be responsible for ensuring their own education and also praised Skyline College for their publicity campaign to inform students about the new policy.

“I think they did a really good job publicizing it, because I saw information all around campus and on their website about the payment plan,” Lipkin said. “I think that the information and the resources were out there and were available for students to take advantage of.”

Spring 2012 is still very much a trial period for the new Plan Ahead – Pay Ahead policy, and Mosby was able to concede that the plan is not yet perfect.

“It is also important to keep in mind that this was our first time instituting this policy,” Mosby said. “Representatives from all the colleges and district staff are working together, looking at ways for improvement in the future.”