Students vote in support of fee increase
Students voted in support of four proposed fee increases at the Feb. 3 Student Government Association meeting. The proposed increases include changes to student services fees, which are mandatory for all enrolled students, as well as three optional fees covering new student orientations and student reinstatement fees.
The Student Life Council proposed a fee increase of one dollar to student services fees, which are currently set at $35 per credit hour with a maximum of six credit hours charged. The proposed increase would raise the maximum total fee for student services from $210 to $216 per semester.
The student services fees are a mandatory charge for all enrolled students.
The funds provided by the increase would be used to address the additional resources and services recommended by the Student Life Council.
These recommendations are prioritized for funding and include staff merit raises, a student worker position in Student Publications, an additional career counselor, a registered nurse for health services, a student worker position in the Office of Intercultural Student Services, and a new executive director position.
The proposed changes to optional fees would affect the Student Orientation, Advising, Registration Fee (SOAR), the New Student Orientation Fee and the Reinstatement Fee. Optional fees only apply to certain groups of students.
Darlene Biggers, associate vice president for student services, proposed changes to the fees associated with orientation services. Presently, all students new to UHCL pay a $30 fee, which is rolled into their tuition, and other fees once registered.
Biggers explained the current fee is not enough to cover costs, and orientations have been supplemented with soft funds from savings that may not be available in the future.
“It is very important that students attend orientation and to take it seriously,” Biggers said. “It’s kind of like an investment; you invest one day to help your success for the rest of your time here.”
The proposed SOAR fee would be a one-time fee of $60 per student and $20 per guest. This fee would be charged only to students transferring in with less than 30 credit hours. The fee would be paid prior to orientation to cover the cost of food, services and the materials provided to students who attend the orientation session but who may or may not choose to attend UHCL. The SOAR students are provided a more in-depth orientation requiring one-on-one time with advisers, which makes the groups smaller and more costly.
Any new student with 30 credit hours or more would be charged a one-time New Student Orientation Fee of $50, recommended to be raised from the present $30/student. Because these students have had some college experience, the orientation is designed to accommodate more students and the fee is cheaper. The fee is divided equally to support both domestic and international students new to UHCL as it has been in the past. This fee increase was presented both by Biggers and Sameer Pande, executive director for the Office of International Admissions and Programs.
“The value international students bring to the university benefits everyone,” Pande said. “They are not a small group of students within the university; they are a part of the university.”
It is a more complex process to get the international students acclimated to life inside and outside of school, Pande explained. International students will now participate in a two-day orientation.
Lastly, a $200 reinstatement fee proposal was presented by Yvette Bendeck, associate vice president of enrollment management. Students awaiting financial aid, scholarships or loans, as well as those students who have made payment arrangements with the Financial Aid Office, will not be assessed this fee. Bendeck said only those students enrolled in classes who have not attempted to contact the Financial Aid Office or the Business Office to make payment arrangements prior to being dropped from those classes will be assessed this reinstatement fee.
“It is not our goal to generate funds,” Bendeck said. “This fee offers a disincentive to encourage these students to be proactive and to take care of their financial obligations.”
Once dropped from classes, a student has to be reinstated and manually put back into the system after validating his/her attendance with each professor.
At the Feb. 3 meeting, the Student Government Association voted on whether or not to support the fee proposals. All four proposals received a majority vote of student support.
President William Staples, UHCL’s University Council and the UH-System Board of Regents must approve the proposed fees before they potentially go into effect during the 2015-2016 academic year.
