By Nate Bloomquist

Apache Associate Editor

 There’s no such thing as a college student that wouldn’t want a free refund, and that’s exactly what some IVCC students will be getting come summer.

In the past, students that dropped their classes before 10 days into the semester would only receive half of a tuition reimbursement. With the new policy that the college has recently instated, that will change.

Starting with the summer semester, students who withdraw from their classes within 10 days after the class begins will receive a full refund, minus a registration fee. On average the fee amounts to about $3.

Among other reasons, the change was made to make IVCC more ‘student friendly,’ according to Kelly Conrad the director of admissions."It’s just better for the student," said Conrad. "That was really a big issue on the subject."

The new policy should also make for smoother transactions in the bookkeeping and the registration department. The college’s new computer system was also a factor in making the change.Conrad said those issues were needed to be cleared up.

"In the past we had received a lot of appeals from students that felt they should’ve gotten a full refund," she said. "We had to deal with those on an individual basis. With the new policy, that shouldn’t be a problem anymore."

On a wider level, IVCC is now on the same page with the issue as most other community colleges are. Most other community colleges already have the policy in place, which helped in the decision on the issue.

The change helped IVCC comply with some federal regulations regarding financial aide, specifically Title IV. Title IV is the set of government mandates for financial aide that includes regulations for federal Pell Grants.

For students who drop a class and later replace it with a different one, the new policy is even more advantageous."In the past students would take drop one class and take another in its place," said Conrad. "When they did that they would in essence be paying 150 percent of the tuition for one class. Now it’s virtually an even exchange."