Panhandle university cuts tuition for all Alabamians

PENSACOLA - The University of West Florida is offering drastically reduced tuition to students from throughout Alabama by expanding a program that had covered just the southernmost 26 of the neighbor state's 67 counties.

That has caught the attention of state Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, chairman of the House Education Appropriations Committee, because Florida taxpayers will make up the cost difference.

"My first reaction is that probably is something the Legislature will be very interested in," Pickens said Monday.

The reduced tuition is about 75 percent less than the amount normally paid by out-of-state students. Undergraduate tuition and fees will drop from $518.19 to $122.31 per credit hour for newly covered Alabama residents.

That is only slightly higher - by $21 per credit hour - than in-state tuition.

West Florida implemented a limited-area tuition break for southern Alabamans five years ago in response to a similar program at the University of South Alabama in nearby Mobile for students from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in the westernmost Florida Panhandle.

Another Alabama school, Troy State University, has a small branch in the Panhandle at Fort Walton Beach, east of here, where tuition rates are close to those at a UWF campus there.

David Stearns, South Alabama's associate vice president for enrollment, said most of about 600 Florida students there qualify for the reduced tuition.

About 400 Alabama students received reduced tuition at West Florida last semester, said university spokesman Pat Crawford.

Crawford said the university still has plenty of room for qualified Florida residents, although other state universities have been turning them away. West Florida is trying to expand its enrollment of 9,200 students, which lags behind most other state universities in Florida.

"I don't think we're going to be bumping Florida students," Crawford said.

[Last modified June 7, 2005, 02:15:48]