Kentucky State University Dropping Nonpayers

FRANKFORT, Ky. ― Kentucky State University’s interim president says the Frankfort school will drop a quarter of its students for unpaid bills that have helped produce a deficit of nearly $7 million.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says some of the bills are as high as $40,000 and have lasted two years.

Interim President Raymond Burse said Wednesday the deficit, which he called “historic,” is largely due to 645 students who haven’t paid this fall. He says KSU has tried to help students who most need it and has given warnings and financial counseling to students for more than 18 months.

Enrollment last fall was 2,533.

Kentucky State paid balances for 111 students whose balances were less than $1,000. Burse, who took a $90,000 pay cut earlier this summer to boost the wages of the campus’s lowest-paid workers, also ordered $65,000 in scholarships and book vouchers for 42 students about to graduate this year or those who are first-time students.