It just doesn’t seem right that someone who has lived in Kansas all of his life except when he was taken away by military service shouldn’t qualify for resident tuition at Kansas University.

Yet, that is the situation facing Brian Depperschmidt, who was forced to pay non-resident tuition to enroll at KU this semester. Non-resident tuition for a 15-hour class load is $6,638, compared with $2,412 for Kansas residents.

So why is Depperschmidt, a Wichita native who was born and raised in Kansas, paying non-resident tuition? Because he spent six years in the U.S. Navy, a job that took him most recently to Florida where he had the temerity to obtain a Florida driver’s license, buy a home and register to vote.

Those all seem like responsible things for a U.S. citizen to do, but in the eyes of KU, driving, voting and buying a home all worked against Depperschmidt because it established him as a resident of Florida, rather than Kansas.

It’s not like he had a choice. There aren’t a lot of naval bases in Kansas. He was stationed in Florida. He was a resident of Kansas his entire life, except during his military service.

Is this how we welcome our military men and women back to Kansas?

Perhaps, we hope, KU will reconsider this case upon review. People understand the need to draw some lines concerning who pays resident and non-resident tuition. It just seems that drawing the line in a way that penalizes Kansans who serve in the military is an unpatriotic and unfair practice.