 "Photo: Elizabeth Sorrell")
It is official. Your school cannot afford you anymore.
This week, the provost’s office proposed a new student fee to help pay for materials, services and facilities. Students taking six credits or fewer will pay $72 per semester.
Students taking more than six credits will pay $144 per semester. The provost’s office will adjust the fee annually to account for inflation.
Currently, professors decide how to use lab fees in their classes. With the proposed Materials, Services, and Facilities (MSF) fee, professors will have to request funding for materials. Some professors expressed concern that the new fee is just another way for HSU’s administration to consolidate power.
Dr. Luke George, a professor in the wildlife department, said, “It really does take it out of the hands of faculty and put it in the hands of administrators. I think the lab fees were a more democratic way of getting the supplies and equipment we use.”
The university collects fees from students in over 500 lab courses, along with fees for shop cards and facility rentals. The letter from the provost says these fees fall far short of the $2 million HSU spends on providing the materials, services and facilities.
The new fee will help fund many of the special educational programs which HSU is known for, including the marine lab in Trinidad, the research boat, ‘Coral Sea’, the wildlife game pens, the fish hatchery, the green house, campus art galleries, scuba diving equipment and various art labs.
The MSF fee would eliminate most existing class fees, including all College of Natural Resources and Sciences lab fees, bowling rental fees, shop card fees for art, theatre, film and dance and applied technology.
Fees not covered under the MSF fee include geology field camp, international study abroad programs, field trips costing more than $50 per student and sports insurance.
A letter from the provost’s office said that the fee is absolutely necessary. It said, “Without the new fee, we simply won’t have enough money to offer the quality of education that HSU students have come to expect.”
All students will have to pay the fee, regardless of whether or not they are enrolled enroll in shop classes.
The provost’s letter says, “All students have the option of choosing classes or majors that offer these experiences. It is the same principle as paying taxes to support many more programs than one person would use in order to preserve the common good.”
Even if the fee gets voted down in the Academic Senate, President Richmond can override the vote and institute the fee, which has happened in the past.
University spokesman Paul Mann said, “We have cut all the muscle. Now, we’re deep into the bone, and we’re forced to ask students for help.” He added that the university has faced budget cuts for seven years in a row. However, after program eliminations, furloughs and staff cuts, many members of the campus community are suspicious of the administration’s motivation for the fee increase.
Photography professor Nicole Jean Hill said, “I think we need more info about what the money is being spent on.” She worries that the administration won’t take into account the flexibility that individual class fees allow professors.
Religious studies major Kyle Jacobs said that he doesn’t like how Rollin Richmond gets $330,000 a year while the rest of the school faces the realities of budget cuts.
Politics professor John Meyer said that he doesn’t approve of the fee, but he can see both sides of the issue. “I think it’s tragic that the state isn’t providing the funding for higher education. I’d be even more worried though if they made some majors more expensive or exclusive than others.”
Like it or not, the fee is almost certainly coming, and HSU will drift just a little further from the goal of affordable higher education. Please leave your comments on the Academic Affairs website, at www.humboldt.edu/~aavp/.
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