The UNM Bursar's Office is relaxing payment requirements in an effort to help students not get dropped from their classes.
This fall, students who owed more than $2,400 on Aug. 15 had their enrollments cancelled.
In previous years, students who owed more than $100 were dropped. But UNM has increased that number, raising the disenrollment limit to $2,000 in 2007, said Marianne Presser, accounting manager for the Bursar's Office.
Only 627 students were dropped from their courses this fall, compared to 1,753 students in fall of 2006, Presser said.
The Bursar's Office raised the limit after noticing a high number of students being disenrolled, Presser said.
She said the office first tried to make more students aware of the enrollment cancellation deadline and advised them to pay the necessary balance.
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"Then we would look at the reports and the numbers would still be high, so we raised the disenrollment," Presser said.
Presser said sometimes students register for classes they plan to attend but then decide not to go and wait until disenrollment to be dropped.
Student Judy Prieto said she registers as early as possible for her classes, but not all are available.
"I wait for disenrollment sometimes to get into those classes that are closed, but this year it didn't seem like that many people were dropped," Prieto said.
With the decrease in enrollment cancellation, students are no longer trying to get into closed classes following disenrollment, Presser said.
Students who aren't disenrolled and don't pay their balances will end up with holds on their accounts and an "incomplete" or "withdrawal" on their transcripts for the course.
"That's one of our concerns right now," Presser said. "How do we deal with that?"
The office has e-mailed students who have not dropped undesired courses to avoid problems.
Since fewer students are being dropped from their courses, the total number of students signing up for payment plans has decreased. Presser said the Bursar's Office anticipates a rush of students signing up for plans later in the year.
Under a payment plan, students can pay off their balances in two to five months. An additional $10 fee will be added each month to the total balance for using the payment plan.
Students have until Sept. 12 to enroll in a payment plan, which can be done through LoboWeb.
If a student is not signed up for a payment plan or has neglected to make payments on his or her owed balance, a hold will be placed on his or her account.
"The thing we are worried about . is that we don't want students to ignore their bills," Presser said. "It's great they didn't have their enrollment cancelled, but at this point the last thing I want to see is students letting their balances go out. They need to set up payment plans and keep on top of (their balances)."
