Fee board recommends decrease in student fees
Student fees will likely decrease for the 2004-05 school year.
Amid years of increasing tuition costs and other fee increases, the student activity fee will see a $1.25 decrease, if approved by President Kermit L. Hall.
The University Student Fee Board concluded weeks of early morning meetings Thursday with a two-hour powwow to finalize a recommendation for changes to student fees.
There were two fee increases requested, fee board chair Les Essig said. A $3 per semester increase was requested to expand the Education Building computer lab so that it could be used as an open-access lab for all students. The USFB approved 50 cents of that request, Essig said.
The Utah Statesman also requested a $1 per semester increase in the fee it receives. The USFB approved a 25 cent per semester increase for the newspaper. The Statesman asked for the money to enhance digital technology and other areas of their journalism lab, said Gary Chambers, assistant vice president for Student Life.
The overall decrease of the student fees would be made possible by the elimination of a $2 technology enhancement fee.
“[The technology enhancement fee] was to help cover charges from the use of credit cards to make payments,” Chambers said.
Credit card companies receive a percentage of any transaction.
Utah State University paid $184,000 in fees each year, with the remainder of the $250,000 cost coming from the student fee.
Essig said the concern with the fee was that its name was misleading.
The fee board drafted their recommendation for Hall and if approved, the changes will go into effect Fall Semester 2004.
“I think [the fee board] did an awfully good job in talking the issues through,” Chambers said.
-str@cc.usu.edu