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NEWS
| October 24, 2003
Tuition and Fees
Enhancement fee would need Senate
approval
Tuition Review Committee member’s
plan would use a new fee to fund research enhancement initiatives.
By Brad
Rollins
The Shorthorn managing editor
A Tuition Review Committee member will push for legislation establishing
an institutional and research enhancement fee at the university,
he said Thursday.
On the eve of the committee’s final meeting, student member
Bryan Shaner announced a shift in strategy.
Instead of the expected counterproposal to administrators’
suggested increases, he released a draft of a bill he hopes will
be sponsored by area senators or representatives the next time the
Legislature meets.
The accounting senior said the bill, an amendment to existing education
statutes, is a less immediate but more permanent solution to what
he claims amounts to taxing some students to fund college for others.
“This is a problem that middle-class students at every public
university face. Everywhere designated tuition is going up, 20 percent
of [the increases] is taken right off the top,” he said. “We
can set an example for others to follow.”
The Legislature’s next regular session is in May 2005, but
Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call the biennium’s fourth
special session in April to reform public school finance. If it
passed during that session, Shaner said, the fee could be in place
by fall 2004.
The Legislature authorized universities to set part of their own
tuition rates in May. Under the legislation, 20 cents of every dollar
raised through designated tuition hikes must be funneled to need-based
programs aimed at helping students absorb the cost of the new rates.
Fee increases, however, are not subject to the mandatory financial
aid set-aside.
The difference, Shaner said, is a 20 percent savings for students
who bankroll their own education. He said his plan would provide
the same resources for the university to fill new and vacant professorships,
restore employee benefits cut by the Legislature and preserve credit
vital to funding future construction.
“When administrators point to the need for new faculty and
debt service reserves, what they’re really talking about is
spending money to enhance the institution,” said Shaner, who
represents business administration students on the committee. “We
can do the same things with an enhancement fee and save middle-class
students from paying through the nose.”
State Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, said Thursday that he, too,
expects another special session in April or May primarily geared
toward property tax reform aimed at shoring up finances for K-12
education. Legislation that falls outside parameters established
by the “call” for a special session must be cleared
by the governor.
“It would be tough” to implement Shaner’s plan,
he said. “Any time you make a change like that, you have to
take in account the fiscal impact across the state. Once one does
it, they all can do it. That’s a big change.”
Goodman said, however, he would be reluctant to carry legislation
that would undermine the financial aid provisions of tuition deregulation.
A spokesperson for Chancellor Mark Yudof said the system’s
chief had no comment on the potential legislation.
“He isn’t commenting at all on the tuition increases
at every system component,” said Michael Warden, Public Affairs
executive director. “He’s not going to get embroiled
in discussion over potential legislation that may or may not be
considered. It’s very premature.”
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