(1) "Public higher educational institution" shall mean a university or community college supported by appropriations made by the Legislature of this State.

(2) "Residence" shall mean continuous physical presence and maintenance of a dwelling within this State, provided that absence from the State for short periods of time shall not affect the establishment of a residence.

(3) "Domicile" shall mean a person’s true, fixed, and permanent home and place of habitation; it is the place where he or she intends to remain, and to which he or she expects to return when he or she leaves without intending to establish a new domicile elsewhere.

(4) "Emancipated person" shall mean a person who has attained the age of eighteen years, and whose parents have entirely surrendered the right to the care, custody, and earnings of such person and who no longer are under any legal obligation to support or maintain such deemed "emancipated" person.

(5) "Parent" shall mean a person’s father or mother. If there is a non-parental guardian or legal custodian of an unemancipated person, "parent" shall mean such guardian or legal custodian; provided, that there are not circumstances indicating that such guardianship or custodianship was created primarily for the purpose of conferring the status of an in-state student on such unemancipated person.

(6) "Continuous enrollment" shall mean enrollment at a public higher educational institution or institutions of this State as a full-time student, as such term is defined by the governing body of said public higher educational institution or institutions, for a normal academic year or years of the appropriate portion or portions thereof since the beginning of the period for which continuous enrollment is claimed. Such person need not enroll in summer sessions or other such inter-sessions beyond the normal academic year for his or her enrollment to be deemed "continuous." Enrollment shall be deemed continuous notwithstanding lapses in enrollment occasioned solely by the scheduling of commencement and/or termination of the academic years, or appropriate portion thereof, of the public higher educational institutions in which such person enrolls.