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NEWS
| October 14, 2003
Tuition and Fees
Officials ask deans to go easy on
fees
Administrators say they want to
keep fees low so students’ costs can remain manageable.
By Josie
Garcia
The Shorthorn staff
Administrators, anticipating an increase in tuition rates, have
asked deans to carefully consider fee increase requests so students
won’t be further financially burdened.
Interim Provost Dana Dunn expects limited mandatory per-semester
credit-hour fee increases, which includes library and information
technology fees. This means existing fees would remain fixed and
new fees will need justification.
The Fee Oversight Committee met Friday to begin reviewing all fee
increase proposals. It will submit its recommendation to interim
President Charles Sorber by mid-December. Chairmen Josh Warren,
a member who is also Student Congress president, questioned whether
administrators have the authority to discourage fee increases before
they are considered by the committee.
He said congress maintains the ability to approve some fees and
recommend them to administrators.
Warren said if a member from Campus Recreation or the Athletics
Department were to ask congress for a fee increase, he would allow
the member to make a presentation. It would be left up to senators
to approve the request, he added. The Fee Oversight Committee and
congress have not been asked to deny fee increases, he said.
Warren, also chair of the Tuition Review Committee, said part of
the administrator’s tuition increase proposal — $15
per credit hour in the spring and an additional $20 per credit hour
in the fall — does not include raising fees. He said he suspects
administrators are pushing for deans not to raise any fees.
Dr. Dunn said she feels it’s necessary to keep fees low if
tuition is going to be raised.
“They’ve simply been told to scrutinize more carefully
increases,” Dr. Dunn said. “Deans will be coming with
far fewer requests.”
Business Administration Dean Daniel Himarios said he would have
proposed an advising fee this year, but tuition increases will be
enough of a financial load for students.
“Given all the increases we are going to have, we are going
to hold back this year,” Dr. Himarios said. “With all
the increases that students are just facing, we thought it was best
to just wait.”
Like Himarios, Dunn said administrators who proposed the tuition
increases want the tuition and fees to be reasonable.
“We want to keep the total cost of education manageable and
affordable,” she said.
Fee increase requests are due to Dunn’s office Oct. 27. Dunn
said she has not reviewed submitted requests but added that there
are fewer than usual. She said she expects to receive requests for
fee increases for new courses, though.
The Fee Oversight Committee will meet twice more this semester when
members will review the requests.
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