The Tuition and Fees Strategies Committee heard fee proposals Tuesday evening from the College of Arts and Sciences dean Amit Chakrabarti, and the College of Engineering dean Darren Dawson and senior associate dean Darren Clark.
For the College of Arts and Sciences, Chakrabarti proposed a fee increase of $10 from the current $16.70 students pay per credit hour. The proposed increase would generate an additional projected $2.8 million in revenue for the college, Chakrabarti said.
Chakrabarti said the current $16.70 per-credit-hour fee breaks down into three categories: $6.70 to support student research and travel, provide instructional equipment and supplies and replace and upgrade technology; $6.80 to provide stipends at the national average for graduate teaching assistants; and $3.20 to hire and retain professional, degree-specific advisers.
“We talked about how that fee would enhance the College of Arts and Sciences experience for their students, maintain their current class sizes and open up faculty lines that are needed in order to deal with the budget cuts that were made by the state,” said Trenton Kennedy, junior in entrepreneurship and student body vice president.
The College of Engineering proposed a sliding fee increase between $25 and $38. Currently, engineering students pay $65 per credit hour in a faculty surcharge fee and $19 per credit hour in equipment fees.
Dawson said an increase in the fee per credit-hour at the College of Engineering is necessary and if an increase is not passed, such programs as the Academic Success Center, creative inquiry design teams and undergraduate research could face significant reductions in funding.
The college also risks losing accreditation next year, if accreditors from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology are dissatisfied with what they observe at the college when they visit next semester.
Dawson said the increased cost of attendance at the College of Engineering has not affected students from underrepresented areas.
