Q&A with USUSA assistant Dexton Lake about fees and tuition
The Utah Statesman recently sat down with USUSA Administrative Assistant Dexton Lakes with questions about student fees and tuition from the USU community.
Q: Why haven’t more costs been cut during COVID when the facilities we pay for are closed, such as the ARC?
A: That’s a great question that was an administrative decision. There was a lot of pushback from student leaders on that one. The issue that exists is with student fees. The amount that the fee receiving entities get is based on enrollment, and so say that they’re banking on 18,000 students coming to the Utah State Logan campus for the 2021–2022 school year. OK, this is all hypothetical. There could be 17,800 students or there could be 18,200 students, and so either they’ll have a surplus of money based on enrollment or they won’t.
There are budgetary restrictions for 18,000 students, which means they could have a surplus or a shortage. The issue with cutting fees because of COVID-19 is the money is already budgeted by those fee receiving entities. And, in a lot of instances, it’s already spent prior to the budgeting year, as quite a bit of student fee money is spent on salaries, wages and benefits. It’s actually an astronomical number.
I’m not disagreeing with you that students haven’t been able to access those resources. But getting rid of those fees, that may mean somebody getting fired or someone’s time getting cut down at work. Again, that’s all administrative, in the sense that it’s already budgeted and a lot of that goes to salaries and wages. But the flip side of that is that there’s been a realignment and a restructuring of fees and tuition, where almost all salaries and wages have been moved over to tuition. So those aren’t going to be covered under student fees anymore. Now, student fees are being reduced and the state is having to cover those salaries and wages, as has been the case with regular faculty positions at Utah State.
Q: What do my fees actually go towards? How much pays for my education and how much is profit to the school?
A: Student fees do not go to education, that is what tuition is for. Student fees go towards activities and organizations of the school and staff who help provide those activities and guide those organizations.
Q: Why are people out of state charged over $23,000 a semester without any scholarships? Does someone actually pay for that amount with a scholarship, or is that money an income for the school?
A: That’s not a Utah State University thing. That’s a state of Utah thing. I think every state does that. The way it was explained to me, is the state charges extra because you’re not a taxpayer in this state. Because you’re utilizing the state’s resources, whatever they are, roads, infrastructure, public works, that kind of thing. They want to recoup that money somehow, so they raise the tuition and that tuition gets kicked back to the state in some way shape or form. Especially that extra tuition. You are basically paying the tax of not being a Utah resident but living in Utah.
Q: Why did they have to add an additional fee for online classes when we had no choice but to go online?
A: I was actually in the meeting when they decided to do that. It was pre-COVID. In fact, I’m pretty sure fall 2019 was when they made that decision. And it was because a lot of the online resources require additional charges in the form of technology. There’s also additional canvas resources, and, prior to us using zoom, we were using a thing called Webex. There was a charge for that. There was a long list of additional charges required for an online class, so they just combined that all into one to charge online students a specific fee for those courses. They made this decision because they were losing money on the online courses. Now, I can tell you that last semester they didn’t charge that amount because of the whole online predicament with COVID. If I recall, I’m pretty sure they did charge it this semester.
Q: Why do we have to pay so much for things and amenities that we don’t use or associate with?
A: That’s the biggest issue that we run into with student fees, that’s a big complaint. That’s my complaint as a student too, I don’t use a lot of these services. For instance, counseling and psychological services I’ve thankfully not had to use. It helps having students who need that service to utilize that service. The thing with student fees is that universities, this isn’t just Utah State, but universities across the nation agree that student resources should be paid for by students. That doesn’t mean that students are forced to use them. It’s an incentive to be a part of the Utah State community. Recent restructuring has taken into perspective that yes, students are irritated that they don’t want to, or in some instances can’t, access every single student fee thing that they pay for. CAPS is an excellent example of that. They get booked up quick, which is why it’s been shifted to tuition so students don’t have that burden of “I’m paying all this money and I can’t access it, or I don’t want to.”
Q: We have seen an increase in administration positions at the University. How much of our money actually goes to our education and to our teachers? Is this part of our tuition increase?
A: I can’t speak to the increase in administrative positions at USU. There’s a tuition increase being proposed for this year. It is to compensate professors who go through certain milestones in their professional careers. At Utah State, it all has to do with tenure. What’s interesting about the state of Utah is they say that they’ll cover the costs of all public employees through legislative appropriations. Well, that’s fine and dandy, except they only do 75% for higher education. They do 100% for public education and 100% for other tax paid–for positions. But not higher ed. They pay 75%, and so that 25% is made up through tuition increases.
Q: Why do presidential scholarships not cover differential tuition and other lab/classroom fees?
A: To make it even, they can’t account for what different majors may charge for additional materials, so any additional costs are up to the discretion of the department.