A bill before the Tennessee Senate sponsored by state Sen. Roscoe Dixon (D) would allow some out-of-state residents to attend The University of Memphis at in-state tuition rates.
Senate Bill 986 would allow residents of Crittenden County, Ark. and DeSoto, Marshall and Tate counties in Mississippi to attend The University at in-state cost.
The bill is intended to boost enrollment at The University, Dixon said. Enrollment is one of several factors which determine how much funding The University receives from the state.
"We've been working on this for a long time," said Mark Stansbury, U of M assistant to the president.
Currently, an in-state student taking 12 hours at The University pays $1,543.50 in tuition. Out-of-state students pay $4,436.50 for the same number of hours.
"It will help The University compete," Dixon said. "The reason that Middle Tennessee State University is fast overcoming Memphis (in enrollment) is because they draw heavily from surrounding counties. The University of Memphis is not growing like MTSU."
MTSU, centrally located in Murfreesboro, one mile from the geographic center of the state, uses its location as a tool to increase enrollment.
The U of M's geographic isolation hampers its ability to increase enrollment which, according to Dixon, has become stagnant.
"All they (The U of M) can draw from is the western part of Tennessee," Dixon said.
Records that enrollment at The U of M has remained static over the past few years with minor fluctuations from semester to semester.
On average there are between 18,000 and 20,000 students enrolled every semester. Currently 18,278 students are enrolled at The University. There are usually more students attending every fall.
Records from MTSU show it has increased its enrollment from 14,865 in 1990, to 19,121 in 2000.
One Tennessee institution, Austin Peay State University, has been afforded the luxury of accepting out-of-state students at in-state rates.
APSU is located in Clarksville, Tenn., not far from the Kentucky border. APSU is allowed to admit students from a few neighboring counties in Kentucky at in-state rates.
"We did that seven or eight years ago for Austin Peay," Dixon said. "It has kept them very competitive."
In fact, MTSU and APSU were the only two Tennessee Board of Regents four-year institutions to post an enrollment gain in the fall of 2000, according to MTSU officials.
The competition between schools in cash-strapped Tennessee for scarce resources means it will be difficult to win approval for the bill, Dixon said.
"It's going to be tough," Dixon admitted. "MTSU doesn't want it (Bill 986) to pass because they want to become the flagship school."
Stansbury added, "I talked to several legislators who said it could pass and others who said it was 50/50."
