Students Vote To Support Proposed Tuition Increase

TIFFANY FITZPATRICK

THE SIGNAL

UHCL students voted Nov. 19 in support of a tuition increase and fee changes that were presented by university administrators at the Nov. 5 Student Government Association meeting.

At the meeting, university President William Staples explained the proposed increase – 3.9 percent for undergraduate students and 4.9 percent for graduate students – applied to designated tuition, one of the three types of tuition students at UHCL pay. The other two, statutory tuition, which is set by the state, and differential designated tuition, which is specific to certain schools and programs, had no changes proposed.

Designated tuition is tuition beyond the state mandated $50 per credit hour statutory tuition and is set at an amount determined by a university’s governing board in order to fund university operations. The University of Houston System Board of Regents is the governing board for all universities within the UH System and sets a unique amount for each of the system’s four universities.

Staples said the funds generated by the increase would be applied to four main areas: faculty and staff compensation; additional faculty to support university growth; the Four Year Initiative; and the shift of financial aid services away from student services fee funding. He stressed the importance of being able to give raises to the faculty and staff who have earned them.

“We’re no better than the people we have,” Staples said. “If you don’t have good faculty and good staff, you won’t have a good program. It’s that simple. So, in order for us to not only attract, but retain, as many good faculty and staff as we can, we have to pay attention to compensation.”

Darlene Biggers, associate vice president for student services, said that the funding for financial aid services moving away from student services fees and into being base-funded by the university will allow student services fees to better support the things all students are allowed to use.

“Whatever is under student services, even if you don’t use it, you should be able to use it,” Biggers said to students at the meeting.

The consolidated student services fee will include the student ID card fee, the Student Success Center fee and the Writing Center fee.

The information resources fee will include the computer use fee and library use fee. Information resources is requesting an additional $1 per semester credit hour to cover the rising software costs and increasing costs for existing licenses and maintenance.

The Academic Records fee will include the transcript and publication fee and the e-services fee.

There are also changes proposed for non-mandatory, per-user fees, including raising the graduation fee from $65 to $80. New fees include a $25 proctor fee and a $10 per subject Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Subject Retake fee.

Along with presenting the information at the SGA meeting, administrators were available to discuss the proposed increase and changes at two town hall meetings during the week between the

presentation and the student vote.

“Students don’t fully understand how important they are to this process,” SGA President Carla Bradley said. “Our SGA representatives may feel that all they do is ‘fill in’ for their organizations, but they forget that they are truly a small portion representing the student body at large. If UHCL faculty, staff and administration have taken time out of their busy schedules just to hear what students have to say and what their inquiries are, it means that they really would consider our votes of support and non-support.”

Jessyka Reynoso, graduate sociology student, said that, because graduate and international students already pay a higher tuition, it sometimes feels like they are being picked on when it comes to tuition increases.

“I would like to see a change in at least lowering the percent they’re asking from graduates,” Reynoso said. “I know money’s real tight, they’re trying to find it wherever they can and that’s fine, but I’d like to see them lower the percent they’re asking from graduates and from international students.”