Brian Clemmenson
Equinox Staff
Some Keene State College students might see a discount when they or an authorized payer log into QuickPAY to pay their spring bill before the Dec. 7 deadline. The discount is given to KSC students who honored their housing contract.
According to Mandy Martin, assistant director for housing operations, the housing deposit for new students is $100 paid to the admissions office once a student commits to KSC. Martin added, “Returning students paid $300.” The Student Handbook also explains, “A nonrefundable deposit of $300 must be submitted with the application/contract form by the specified deadline before any room assignment can be made… This deposit will be refunded only if housing is not available, if the student graduates or studies abroad, or if he or she is student-teaching beyond a 30-mile commute from [KSC].”
Therefore a multi-year KSC student will not receive an actual refund from their housing deposit unless those listed circumstances in the student handbook arise. As the Handbook stated the previous year’s deposit securing a student housing for this year will be applied to their spring bill and be credited towards their housing costs and fees.
In the case of a first-year student, who submits a non-refundable $100 deposit, the handbook states, “If the contract is cancelled because the student will not be attending Keene State College, the deposit will be forfeited. If we receive notification that the student will be deferring his or her admission to a future semester, the deposit will be deferred to the spring semester of that academic year.”
Therefore if the terms of the contract are completed many first-year students will begin to see a credit in their bill going towards their spring bill for $100.
Martin also stated that there is no notification, “It shows as a line item as a credit on your spring bill semester invoice.” Students will be able to find this on QuickPAY while viewing their bill for spring. Martin also said, “For some people their spring bill will be less than their fall bill. However, students will have to honor the housing contract for that to happen.”
One thing around campus is not many students know that they will be receiving a credit for their housing deposit. Sophomore Jennifer Keveny had no idea that KSC was crediting her and many other students’ spring bills. Keveny added, “They’ve done a bad job trying to tell us.” As Martin said there is no notification and many students like Keveny haven’t really known about it and they have heard rumors. One freshman, Ian Lemley, had no idea. Lemley said, “It’s awesome,” in referencing that he will get his housing deposit credited to his spring bill.
Lemley also added that KSC should do a better job of letting students know that they will be getting that money credited as Lemley said, “I check my email, I haven’t heard anything about it.”
Lemley said he would like to see more emails sent on through the MyKSC account notifying students of situations like this. However, one sophomore, Philip Bergeron, was not in favor emails from the Office of Residential Life or the Students Accounts Office, and thinks that not notifying students isn’t an issue.
Bergeron said, “They are taking it off automatically. It’s not a big deal.”
Bergeron also knew that his bill was going to be credited as the same thing happened to his bill last year. As a result many students will see a slightly discounted bill if they lived up to their housing contract agreement.
One issue for many students is that the college does not communicate with students about their deposit.
A good majority of students are going to see a bill with a line item credit towards the spring semester.
Brian Clemmenson can be contacted at bclemmenson@keene-equinox.com.