Students could receive a 50 percent discount on summer courses if a proposal is accepted by the Board of Trustees Nov. 1.

Mark Rozewski, vice president of business and administration said there is a catch, though.

“Students will save 50 percent on online courses as long as they’re taking a site-based course,” he said.

A site based course is a class that is taught on campus. Students would have to take an online course for every site-based course to get the discount, he said.

The Board of Trustees accepted a similar proposal last year, which cut the price of summer tuition by 20 percent.

After the university lost $1 million from this deal, officials looked for a better way to cut costs and save money.

The university hoped to attract more students to take summer classes with the discount, but it didn’t work.

“Twenty percent off enrollment didn’t help when enrollment was exactly the same as it was before,” he said.

Rozewski said it wouldn’t be possible to offer a 50 percent discount for all classes instead of just online classes.

“The state invests half a billion in this college campus,” he said.“It would not be good policy to have only online courses. The campus would be abandoned for three to four months of the year,” he said.

The proposal was mentioned at a Faculty Senate meeting by Provost Ron Rochon.

Many members of the faculty senate expressed concern about a lack of options for online summer classes.

Rochon said in the meeting that the university may lose some money from the discount, but that the state is pushing for distance education classes. 

USI student Tara Franklin said she could afford to take summer classes if this happens. “I could possibly graduate on time,” she said on The Shield’s Facebook. “Could I be so blessed?”