Today, college students have a number of financial concerns: "Where are the best sales?" "How will I pay for this month's rent?" "Who has the cheapest gas?"

As his college sits with seven digits of debt, one K-State official is more than able to relate.

Brian Spooner, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and University Distinguished Professor of biology, said his college has accumulated $3 million in debt due to "chronic under-funding." He said the debt added up as the college tended to overspend for classes and advising.

"That drifts our difference between our costs and the money available to do it a little further apart, suggesting that we're slightly in the red," Spooner said. "And that's an increasing degree of slightly."

The interim dean said the problem has been intensified by the need for new faculty, as well as the economic recession.

"As I came into this interim dean job and looked through all these issues, what I found was this dramatic difference between resources and obligations," Spooner said. "And I've worked during that period of time to reduce that by saying ... ‘We can't afford to do that.'"

Compared to the state of the college two years ago, today's College of Arts and Sciences is lacking 41 tenure-track faculty. Spooner said this deficit is a result of the hiring freeze, which he said is caused by inadequate state funding.

He said about half of the college's budget is derived from tuition and most of the rest of the budget comes from state funding. As the state decreases funding for the College of Arts and Sciences, tuition must account for an increasing portion of the budget.

Spooner said another problem contributing to the budgetary woes comes from the equal distribution of tuition funds. The College of Arts and Sciences generates about 54 percent of all student credit hours at K-State's Manhattan campus, he said, but the funds generated from these credit hours are not paid in full to the college. These funds are divided amongst a number of other campus entities.

CONTROVERSY

During his interview for the interim dean position, Spooner said he suggested a $10 per credit hour fee for classes in the College of Arts and Sciences in order to counteract the mounting debt. He said that next year, this potential fee is projected to generate somewhere between $2.5 million and $3 million.

The interim dean said even this fee increase is not fully sufficient in meeting their needs.

"Even if we had that $3 million and therefore didn't have to use food stamps at the grocery store ... we would just be even," Spooner said. "When they see this college walking down the hall, it's limping, dragging along a leg behind it, and we need to have an appropriate gait."

Bruce Shubert, vice president for Administration and Finance, said the Long-Term Tuition Strategies Committee has been "discussing tuition in the context of the existing budget system" since October. Shubert said this committee, which includes a number of students and university administrators, has suggested an alternative idea.

"We ... felt like in the current environment, the best approach was to ... come up with a uniform fee," Shubert said.

This uniform fee would be a university-wide per credit hour charge, assessed to all courses in all colleges. Shubert said money from the fees would be paid to the specific college for which the fee was assessed.

Spooner, however, said he does not endorse a university-wide fee. He said the Colleges of Architecture, Business and Engineering already have fees established. The interim dean said this is not fair to what he calls the "have-not" colleges, or those who have no fees established.

"In my opinion, the inequity of that differential is shameful," Spooner said. "The argument that you need fancier equipment or better faculty ... I can apply it to the natural sciences component of Arts and Sciences, where our faculty ... bring in as much extramural research funding as the College of Agriculture or the College of Engineering."

Shubert said the $39 per hour credit fee for the College of Engineering had simply been enacted in the past and is now status quo. He said it was established because the College of Engineering "demonstrated a need that people agreed to." Laboratory equipment and accommodation for pressures in recruiting faculty are identified as part of this need, Shubert said.

Shubert, however, said he endorses the university-wide fee. He said all colleges have specific needs and all have experienced budget cuts in the last two years.

Before approved, the fees will have to travel through several K-State evaluators and will eventually go before the Board of Regents. The fee evaluation process will not be completed until this June. A 3 percent increase in university-wide tuition is also being considered.

STUDENT RESPONSE

Meredith Lindsey, senior in theater performance and broadcast journalism, said her parents promised her four years of college education. Lindsey is completing her fourth year of college, however, and will be returning next year to finish her degrees. She said she's concerned about the potential increases in tuition and fees.

"After this year, my parents will no longer be able to afford to do more than maybe help me out a couple of times a month," Lindsey said. "We've not really discussed it - I'm a little afraid to ask them about what I'm going to do next year."

She is working two jobs this semester and said she is afraid she may have to acquire a third to compensate

for rising costs, loss of parental support and potential loss of scholarships as a fifth-year student.

"These sudden, new, tacked-on fees will probably make it extremely difficult for me to remain as a full-time student at K-State," Lindsey said. "I will have to discuss my options with the Financial Aid Office and probably entirely redo my FAFSA to let them know that it's been increased and I don't know how much longer I can afford to pay for it."