As used in this chapter:
(1) "College or university" means a state-chartered public educational institution of higher learning located in this State.
(2) "Contributor" means a person who makes or is obligated to make advance payments in accordance with a prepaid tuition contract.
(3) "Director" means the head of the South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program.
(4) "Designated beneficiary" means the individual who is designated as the beneficiary of amounts paid or to be paid to the South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program or, in the case of a change in beneficiaries as permitted under this chapter, the individual who is the new beneficiary.
(5) "Fund" means the South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program Fund.
(6) "Independent institution of higher education" means an independent eleemosynary junior or senior college in South Carolina whose major campus and headquarters are located within South Carolina and which is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
(7) "Program" means the South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program.
(8) "The Tuition Prepayment Contract" means the contract entered into by the Director of the South Carolina Tuition Prepayment Program or his designee on behalf of the program and a contributor pursuant to this chapter for the advance payment by the contributor of undergraduate tuition at a fixed, guaranteed level for a designated beneficiary to attend a public educational institution of higher learning in the State or another educational institution of higher learning as may be provided in this chapter to which the designated beneficiary is admitted.
(9) "Treasurer" means the South Carolina State Treasurer.
(10) "Tuition", for purposes of this chapter only, means the registration or matriculation, credit-hour charges, and mandatory college fees, including athletic or activity, medical or infirmary, and capital improvement fees, imposed by a public higher education institution in this State as a condition of enrollment of all full-time, undergraduate students regardless of class. Tuition does not under any circumstance include the expenses for student housing, meal plans, books, class or lab supplies and equipment, uniforms and laundry, transportation, course-specific fees, or any other fees or charges the program did not consider in the determination of the annual contract pricing structure, regardless of how these fees are characterized by the institution.
HISTORY: 1997 Act No. 155, Part II, Section 4A; 2000 Act No. 410, Section 2(A); 2001 Act No. 72, Section 1.