CREDIT-CARD EDUCATION; FEW STUDENTS USE `PLASTIC' FOR SOUTHEAST FEES

The commercials suggest you can master the possibilities with MasterCard. At Southeast Missouri State University, students now can master an education through credit cards.

Since last November the university has allowed students to pay fees with MasterCard or Visa. At this point, only a small number of students are using credit cards to pay their fees, but the number will probably grow in the future, said Kenneth Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration.

The bursar's office at Southeast takes in about $2 million in receipts a month. But of that amount, only about $50,000 worth of university fees are being paid by credit card, Dobbins said.

Only a minority of students are currently paying their fees by credit card. One reason for that, said Dobbins, is that many students may not be aware of the payment option.

On top of that, the university at this point has basically accepted credit card payments only in person and not through the mail. Until such payments are accepted through the mail, credit card payments likely will remain relatively low, Dobbins said.

He said a university committee involving students, staff and administrators will be set up this fall to review student payment procedures and make recommendations for improvements.

Dobbins said the university may start regularly accepting credit card payments by mail by the spring semester.

He said the university is already allowing students who are delinquent in their payment of fees to make credit card payments by telephone or by mail.

Of 513 students who were delinquent in their payments and who were billed in July, 11 responded with credit card payments by telephone and another 11 with credit card payments by mail.

"We're doing this with delinquencies because we want to get them paid," said Dobbins.

"Basically, what we are doing is giving students another method of payment," he explained. "The more familiar students get with the process, the more they are going to use it."

The idea of paying fees by credit card is a new concept here; but nationwide many universities have such a payment option.

"In Ohio, all the state universities are very heavy into MasterCard and Visa. In fact, some of them are starting to use the Discover card," said Dobbins, who previously was director of university auditing at Kent State University in Ohio.

Universities in Ohio have had credit card payment systems in place for at least 12 years, Dobbins said.

K.C. Martin, Student Government president at Southeast, has worried that students could end up being heavily in debt by using credit cards to fund their education.

"Credit cards are definitely the way the economy is going," said Martin. "However, the university has a responsibility not only to provide an education for students but also to look out for students' welfare," he said.

"By promoting the use of credit cards as payment for an education, the university seems to be shunning that responsibility," he said.

Martin has suggested the university provide some type of financial counseling for students.

With credit cards bearing interest rates in the range of 18 percent, it's also costly, he said.

Dobbins agreed that using credit cards is not the way to fund one's entire college education. "You'd probably pay for it three or four times over," said Dobbins.

"I would not encourage anyone to use MasterCard or Visa for any long-term financing of higher education. It's just a short-term method of financing. I think no more than a semester or so (of education)," he said.

Dobbins said it makes sense for the university to offer this method of payment. "It's now really a common instrument of commerce. It is now almost taken for granted that you will offer credit cards as a payment option."

In addition to expansion of the credit card payment system, the university may look at going to a combined billing procedure, said Dobbins.

Such a procedure would allow students to pay one bill for all their fees, including parking, room-and-board and incidental fees, he explained. The bill could also include the student's class schedule.

A university committee this fall will look at ways to improve the student-record system.

Dobbins said such improvements could ultimately lead to a system where students could enroll, register for classes and pay their fees at one time.

For this fall semester, the university is allowing non-degree-seeking students to register by telephone for some 70 classes and pay for them by telephone with MasterCard and Visa.

"We want to make sure we're serving students and not disserving students," said Dobbins.