2008 Woodie Awards
Graduation fees increase
Jocelyn Orr
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: The Future of Humboldt State
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Two fees associated with graduation have been increased because of debt, repairs and new mandated services.
Graduating students, like O'Neill, who paid beforehand were lucky, said Commencement Director Jane Rogers.
Where students paid $30 before, they now pay $53 for graduation.
A diploma and commencement fee comprises what is commonly called the graduation fee. The diploma fee pays for the processing of graduation degree checks and printing of diplomas. The graduation ceremony is paid for in part by the commencement fee.
Both fees increased with the approval of the Student Fee Advisory Committee. The advisory committee is an Associated Students committee that advises the university's president on all campus fees. The committee includes the Associated Students President, three students, three administrators and one faculty member.
The fee increases almost doubled what graduates must pay, whether they decide to walk or not.
"How much work is it to do a graduation check?" O'Neill said. "I think the $20 increase is just way too much. I understand what it goes towards now, but it should be a gradual increase," she said.
University Registrar Hillary Dashiell said the Registar's Office has 11 student employees paid from the diploma fee to to process diplomas. The employees check graduation status, check name spellings and area of study and print the diplomas. Other staff are involved with graduation and commencement.
Dashiell said she proposed the diploma fee increase because the fee no longer covered expenses related to processing.
Rogers said every graduate pays because the university anticipates them to graduate and the fees pay for the graduation process.
Rogers and Robert Gonzales, Vice President of University Advancement, proposed the commencement fee increase to the advisory committee. The fee was last raised in 1994.
Since then, several Americans With Disabilities Act requirements have been mandated for the commencement ceremony, including shuttle vans with wheelchair-lift capabilities, live-stream and recorded videos with closed captioning and an on-site ambulance.
"Everything was getting more expensive," Rogers said. The fee is tied to the Higher Education Price Index now, so the fee will go up with inflation.
"That way we won't have to go back and ask for another increase," Rogers said.
Associated Students President and member of the advisory committee Terra Rentz said she understands the cost of materials increased, but it is unfortunate that the commencement fee is tied to the Higher Education Price Index.
"It means the fee will increase a certain percentage each year. I was opposed to it because [the index] has never been consistent," she said, adding students can't predict how much they will need to pay.
The Higher Education Price Index is tied to the Consumer Price Index, which fluctuates with the economy. The Higher Education Price Index increased 10 percent in one year. If the index increased 10 percent next year, graduates would pay two more dollars for the commencement fee.
The Instructionally Related Activities fee, which increased $202 in August, is also attached to the price index.
Jeff Haag, a faculty member of the mathematics department and the Student Fee Advisory Committee, said increasing student fees is not easy.
"I think of [both fees] in the same amount of need," he said, "and students are only paying a small portion of the cost [of graduation]."
Students pay for 15 to 20 percent of the overall cost of the ceremony, Rogers said.
Graduation is supposed to be a celebration, not a burden for students, Rentz said.
"It is a sensitive subject for people," she said. "Students shouldn't have to pay for student services at the university."
Rentz has different feelings about each fee. She said the advisory committee doesn't like the commencement fee increase. "But it makes sense, [the proposed increase] was very clear," she said.
The diploma fee, however, is not tied the index.
"I am hoping to balance what is fair to students," Dashiell said. "I didn't feel it was necessary to tie the [diploma] fee to the index."
Rentz sees the increased graduation fees as part of a larger issue at the university. President Rollin Richmond "has painted everybody into a corner," she said, "making it seem like the only option is to have students pay for what they want." However, students don't have the ability to decide what services they actually want.
"We are being taxed without representation," she said, adding that should be her job, but none of the Associated Students at any California State University have any legal power.
"Our student government has only as much power as our administration believes we have," she said.
Jocelyn Orr can be reached at jmo32@humboldt.edu
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