USU Huntsman School of Business advisory board will meet following student media investigation into lack of tuition oversight

An advisory board for the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business that never met to discuss millions of dollars in differential tuition will meet for the first time in December.

Huntsman School of Business Associate Dean Dave Patel released a statement via email on Thursday about the advisory board stating it “can and will do better” to collaborate with students on differential tuition spending, and pledged to create the advisory board, which has not met since its charter was created, two years ago.

The email, sent to all business school students, comes on the heels of an investigative report from The Utah Statesman’s story highlighting the board’s lack of existence to provide input for more than $8 million of differential tuition.

BREAKING: the @huntsmanschool sent this out to it's students in response to our story. #uted #utpol pic.twitter.com/jhI7uX4LSL

— Utah Statesman 📰 (@UtahStatesman) November 16, 2017

Patel acknowledged the lack of board meetings in the email, but said the deans’ office routinely meets with various student groups.

“At each of those meetings, we solicit input from students, and we consider that student input both crucial and valuable,” Patel wrote.

Students are a vital stakeholder of the Huntsman School. The Huntsman School Differential Tuition Advisory Board is comprised of students, faculty, and staff, and is modeled on the existing USU Student Fee Board. They review the use of differential tuition annually and recommend ways to allocate funds from future differential tuition flows. – Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Differential Tuition Advisory Board Charter

According to college’s charter, the chair should “convene the board at least once per year with additional meetings to be called as needed to carry out the responsibilities of the board.”

The Huntsman School of Business collects about $8 million per year in differential tuition, which supports personnel — such as faculty and staff, “program support” and “administrative infrastructure,” according to the college’s website.

According to the email, the differential tuition advisory board plans to meet the first week of December.

What’s differential tuition?

Carter Moore/The Utah Statesman

In 2007, the Huntsman School of Business began charging differential tuition, money paid in addition to baseline USU tuition. The idea was approved by the Utah State University Board of Trustees and the state Board of Regents, according to its website.

Differential tuition is based off credit hour and the level a student is in the college.

The current differential tuition per credit hour for the 2017-18 academic year in addition to what normal tuition would cost for a USU student in the Huntsman School of Business.

• Undergraduate lower division (1000 & 2000-level courses) – $2
• Undergraduate upper division (3000, 4000 & 5000-level courses) – $157
• Graduate (6000 & 7000 -level courses) – $469