Virginia 125% Tuition Surcharge - Waiver?

[financiallylost]

Hi all, I have been helping a friend who returned to finish his undergrad degree after taking several years off.

He re-started school in Summer 2015 and changed majors prior to beginning classes this summer in order to finish his degree quicker. He is now 18 credits away from graduating. He received an email from the University Registrar today stating that he has exceeded the 125% in-state tuition limit and will be charged a surcharge for any additional credits taken.

The 125% credit limit is 150 credits; he has 160. However, we have been reading up on the issue and found VA’s domicile guidelines that outline waiver of the surcharge. I am hoping he might have a change to get the waiver due to this:

C. Waiver of the surcharge. Waivers involving circumstances not otherwise outlined in these guidelines shall be reviewed by State Council of Higher Education for Virginia staff. The institution may waive the surcharge assessment for students who exceed the 125 percent credit hour threshold due to extenuating circumstances. The institution shall review all requests for waivers on a term-by-term basis. Waiver criteria that may be approved by the institution include:
…
2. Academic program decisions requiring additional courses.

b. Change of majors. Except in cases where the institution requires the change of major, this provision for a waiver is only applicable for a student’s initial change of major - multiple changes by the student are not grounds for a waiver – and the change of major must have been declared by no later than the academic year prior to the term in which the student exceeds the credit hour threshold.

Entire document is found here: http://www.schev.edu/students/vadomicileguidelines.asp

I wanted to see if anyone on this board may have experience with this or might see this exemption might not actually apply. He did not receive the “warning” email about the 125% tuition surcharge until AFTER he had changed his major, applied for his degree, and enrolled in his final 18 credit hours.

Any advice or things I may not be thinking of? I am trying to help him be as prepared as possible prior to contacting the school.