A program designed to boost enrollment and keep talent in Ohio could save eligible undergraduate students at Ohio University close to $9,000 a year in tuition fees, but few students have jumped at the opportunity.
Forever Buckeye, a statewide program passed by the legislature last summer, was instituted at OU on Sept. 30, said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis, in a previous article in The Post.
The program allows students who graduated from an Ohio high school but currently live out of state to attend an Ohio university and pay in-state tuition. The student must have graduated from high school within 10 years of the beginning date of his or her first term at a university.
Only five OU students are currently enrolled in the program: two undergraduate students, two graduate students and one student enrolled in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, said Robert Callahan, associate director for transfer initiatives.
Callahan said the low numbers did not surprise him because the program has only been in place since Fall Quarter, making Winter Quarter the first quarter that students could take advantage of the discount.
“Eventually the numbers are going to pick up, but I think right now there is just not enough word of mouth and not enough name recognition,” Callahan said.
OU had anticipated more graduate students using the program than undergraduates, Callahan added.
The Ohio Board of Regents has yet to receive data from public universities across the state, but it has seen increased awareness about the program, said John Charlton, deputy director of communications at the Ohio Board of Regents and a 1990 OU alumnus.
“The gist of the program is that we want to keep the local talent in Ohio, and if they’ve left and experienced the world … we welcome them back,” Charlton said. “We want that talent to come back to Ohio.”
By comparison, at Bowling Green State University, 12 students are participating in the program, said Dave Kielmeyer, university spokesman for BGSU.
“It’s an interesting program, and the university is telling prospective and current students about this opportunity,” Kielmeyer said. “It’s too soon to gauge how effective it will be.”
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