2008 Woodie Awards
Students taking higher course load may pay proportionately more for their tuition
Student addresses tuition increase during March 18 meeting.
By Regis L. Roberts
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News
Originally published: 4/3/08 at 2:05 PM CSTLast update: 4/3/08 at 6:46 PM CST
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Not mentioned during the meeting is how much more students will pay proportionately the more hours they take.
The new tuition plan, which will take effect in the fall semester, will raise tuition by $7 per credit hour to replace lost revenue from the elimination of special course, laboratory, registration, library upgrade and student insurance fees.
Board members were so eager to get to the tuition item - No. 24 on the agenda - that they often interrupted board Chair Roberto Zárate's reading of other agenda items to approve them.
James McLaughlin, vice chancellor for administration, devised the plan and presented it at the March 11 Audit, Budget and Finance Committee meeting.
McLaughlin said a student enrolled in six credit hours now pays $416 in tuition and fees, excluding laboratory fees, which are based on individual classes.
After calculating for the eliminated fees and the $7 per credit hour increase, a student would pay a flat $428 for six credit hours, he told attendees of the board meeting.
Students enrolled in 12 hours will pay proportionately more than students taking six hours because the registration, library upgrade and insurance fees are all a flat rate.
Currently, the registration and library upgrade fees remain $13 no matter how many hours a student takes, and the insurance fee is a flat $4 fee.
This means that a student enrolled in 12 hours will pay $745 in the fall compared with $691 now, before lab fees, a 7.2 percent difference; compare this with the 2.9 percent difference between the proposed $428 bill for six hours with the current $416.
When reached Tuesday about this discrepancy, McLaughlin said these figures do not reflect the lab fees that will not be part of students' bills in the fall.
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