I have been a resident of Utah for 3 years now, and I am FINALLY being allowed to apply for resident tuition. The form I had to fill out asks for details about every aspect of my life. Let me tell you, the Department of Homeland Security has nothing on the Utah State University residency folks. They want to know where I have lived, worked, and traveled in the past three years. Every trip greater than 15 days has to be documented. They want copies of my taxes, my vehicle and voter registrations, my mortgage statements, as well as information about my wife and my parents. While I am grateful to pay less tuition starting next semester, I am amazed by how much information is required to establish residency. So I wrote my own version of an employment verification letter to make life easier on my supervisor:
To whom it may concern,
Tom Caswell has been an employee of Utah State University since September 2005. He has put up with your tuition residency requirements for 3 years now. He has paid the higher out-of-state tuition rates during this time — even though he has been paying Utah property, income, and sales taxes since the first day he set foot in Utah back in August 2005. Please stop being a bunch of freaking morons and realize that he is now eligible for in-state tuition. Thank you.
