College of arts considers differential tuition
The Caine College of Arts is considering implementing differential tuition beginning Fall 2013.
Associate Dean Chris Terry said the college may add new programs with the extra tuition. Film, dance and commercial music majors are among those being considered.
If the college decides to go forward with plans, the change would be implemented in phases over three years, Dean Craig Jessop said to students at a town hall meeting last Wednesday.
Jessop said the money could help pay for a new arts building on the corner of 1200 N. 800 East, as well as expansion to the current Fine Arts Building.
Unlike other majors that charge differential tuition, implementing the fee could do away with student and course fees in the arts school. Jessop said this would mean students would no longer have to pay for practice rooms or equipment.
Jessop said the initial cost would be $15 per credit for Caine College of Arts courses. He told students the cost is a fraction of what business students pay for their credits.
“Next year, students would see an elimination of fees,” Jessop said.
A concern among art students voiced in the town hall meeting was how the funds would be divided among the programs.
Terry said a board of students and faculty would be created to help decide what the first priorities are when it comes to distributing the money. Terry told students there would be representatives from every program in the college.
“There will be one or two students from each emphasis – perhaps a professor, maybe the department head,” Terry said.
Although nothing has been officially decided, the administration is advocating for the change. Terry told students this will provide a foundation for the arts school to become renowned.
“If I could sit down with any student for ten minutes, I convince them that this is a change that they should be 100 percent behind,” he said.
The three-year-old Caine College is modeling the fee structure after the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business’s differential tuition plan. This year, students in upper-division business classes paid $67 per credit on top of their regular tuition.
“The Business College has charged differential tuition since 2006, and it has proven to be very successful,” said Huntsman Business School Dean Kenneth Snider in a presentation given to the Business Council last Tuesday.
Snider said differential tuition was implemented to help the business school with increasing costs of faculty and declining support from the state.
Snider said the additional tuition has helped the Business School hire ten new faculty members from other nationally-recognized business schools. They have been able to create new master’s degree programs, a internship office and an a entrepreneur advising office with the extra funding.
Snider said if differential tuition adds value to the school, then people will come.
He said new internal infrastructure of administration and faculty in the Business College has increased enrollment. He said none of those changes would have been possible if it had not been for differential tuition.
Jessop wants to make similar changes in the Arts College.
“I am hoping I can appeal to your sense of long-term vision and your commitment to your school in building a school of excellence and quality,” Jessop said.
– katrimw@gmail.com