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NEWS
| NOVEMBER 30, 2005
Tuition
Committee deadline extended
Provost Dana Dunn will give the
Tuition Review Committee until Monday to finish its proposal.
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| The Shorthorn: Manikandan Sachidanandan |
| Provost Dana Dunn speaks while
Rusty Ward, vice president for Business Affairs and controller,
listens Tuesday evening in the University Center
Concho Room. The Tuition Review Committee addressed students’
concerns over the flat-rate tuition system. |
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By Elaine
Marsilio
The Shorthorn staff
A drafted flat-rate tuition proposal was halted Tuesday evening
by the Tuition Review Committee due to lack of time for evaluation
and discussion with student constituents, Student Congress President
Josh Sawyer said.
The committee will meet again Thursday, expecting to adjourn with
a recommendation in mind for President James Spaniolo, Sawyer said.
Committee members will use the day lapse to meet with their constituents
and gain feedback.
Students and administrators addressed concerns over the proposed
flat-rate tuition for almost three and a half hours, with Provost
Dana Dunn and Rusty Ward, vice president for business affairs and
controller, answering most of the questions.
Dunn gave the committee until Monday to send its recommendation
to the president. Sawyer said the committee will accept Dunn’s
offer.
Sawyer said that although a recommendation will be formulated Thursday,
he will probably need the weekend to write the proposal and have
all members sign it.
The flat-rate system calls for, on average, a 20 percent tuition
increase in academic year 2006-07 and a 5 percent increase in 2007-08.
Sawyer and Collins Watson, Graduate Student Senate president, voiced
concerns that the committee members did not have enough time to
draft a proposal Tuesday evening or meet with their respective constituency
councils.
The committee and student visitors discussed the pros and cons of
the proposed system, which committee members agreed broke down into
two issues: a large tuition increase and the flat-rate system.
Watson said he was concerned for the graduate students, who he knew
were not prepared for an approximate 20 percent increase next academic
year. He suggested writing a recommendation to allow for a 5 percent
increase in 2006-07 and then the almost 20 percent increase in 2007-08.
“In the long run, it’s the same,” Watson said.
In other business, the future of the Tuition Review Committee, the
Student Fee Oversight Committee and the Student Service Fee Advisory
Committee was discussed, if a flat-rate tuition system were adopted.
If implemented, the system would most likely combine the Student
Fee Oversight Committee with the Tuition Review Committee. But SSFAC
would remain in place, Dunn said.
The convergence of the tuition and fee oversight committee would
be beneficial to students because members could see more clearly
where their money is going, she said.
“I think you are far more in power if you have the big picture,”
Dunn said.
Sawyer presented a tuition-setting process that Student Congress
Executive Board members designed, which calls for the preservation
of student committees and a student voice in the process.
“I would rather have more people involved at different levels,”
Sawyer said.
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