More students
equal more money
Metro hits enrollment record; fees remain same
by Armando Manzanares
The Metropolitan
Where the money goes:
Student Affairs Fee:
The fee covers the cost of activities and organizations students participate
in. 17 separate programs receive money from this fee.
Intercollegiate Athletics Fee:
Allows Metro State students free access to all Metro State intercollegiate
sporting events. This fee funds the operating budget for Metro’s
NCAA-II intercollegiate athletic program, which consists of five women’s
and five men’s varsity sports. In addition, it also allows students
to use the Athletic Facilities.
Health Services Fee:
The Health Center is funded exclusively by student fees and self-generated
income. This fee supports the cost of medical personnel, associated operating
expenses, and health education programming and outreach. Brief office
visits are free to all Metro State students and all other charges are
assessed at a significantly reduced rate.
Registration Fee:
This fee is used to support and maintain the automated phone registration
system which is used by students to register for classes, as well as retrieve
grades and obtain other useful information.
AHEC Facilities and Bond Fee:
These fees are used to support the debt requirements of the debt financing
for the Auraria Child Care Center, Tivoli Student Union, and the Auraria
Events Center.
Information Technology Fee:
This fee is used to support and maintain the various computer labs on
campus that are available for use by all registered students upon presentation
of a current Metro State ID.
RTD Bus Pass Fee:
Approved by the vote of the student bodies of Metro State, UCD, and CCD,
this fee allows a registered student of each of these institutions to
ride the RTD free or at a discounted rate, upon presentation of a current
student ID.
Clean Energy Fee:
This fee is used pay for the solar and wind energy for Auraria for the
next three years, a tri-school venture.
While student fees have not increased since last school year, the services
which receive those funds can expect more money due to higher enrollment.
Preliminary numbers show enrollment at 20,992, which is an increase of
762 students, 3.1 percent over last year’s final total of 20,230.
It appears the growth is due to a larger number of continuing students
rather than new freshmen or transfers.
With the increase in students, full-time enrollment has increased as
well.
Students taking between 10-15 credit hours are required to pay $276.94
in various student fees, ranging from $1 for the newly-added Clean Energy
fee to $73 for the Auraria Higher Education Center Facilities and Bond
fee (used to pay the debt created to build and maintain the campus).
The fees increase or decrease contingent on the amount of credits the
student takes.
According to last year’s figures, 11,479 students were taking between
10-15 credit hours. Combine that with the current fee schedule, and $3,178,994
is being paid into student fees from that group alone. The final numbers
for Fall 2004 semester will not be available until mid-September.
Brian Glotzbach, Student Government Assembly Vice President for Student
Fees, said although there are not significant increases in student fees,
students must become aware of where those fees go and how they are being
spent.
“The majority of students have no idea of where their fees are
going,” Glotzbach said. “Our job is to make them aware and
make sure the fees are being spent appropriately.”
Glotzbach’s responsibility is oversight for student fees and accountability
of those fees as well as representing students regarding the fees.
“The students need to know where the money is going to, and if
they are not happy with it, then (they can) go to SGA or the administration
and say something,” he said. “If you don’t know what
you’re paying for you are in no position to complain.”
An additional fee going up for approval again is an optional Internet
fee of $40 per semester for dial-up Internet access at home.
The proposal died this past Spring because the original proposal had an
opt-out clause that somewhere along the way was changed to mandatory,
Glotzbach said.
Also, the three academic schools at Metro are looking to switch the 300
separate “course fees” to 30 “program fees.”
The fees would continue to be department-specific but students that currently
pay a fee for a certain course would pay a general program fee for taking
courses in that program. The flip side is students that are not paying
a course fee would then pay a program fee for taking courses in the program.
“This is to remain revenue neutral — so there is no increase
in department funding but what will happen is students that currently
takes a class with no course fee will have a program fee,” Glotzbach
said.
He said some research has been done and the increases and decreases are
negligible — it’s not going to be a substantial amount.
Doing this however might free up fee money the department receives to
pay for things that they are currently restricted to pay for, like maintenance
and repairs.
“The idea, per the Board of Trustees, is to save $70,000 a year
by reducing the amount of course fees to evolve into a lesser amount of
program fees which would reduce the overall administrative costs,”
Glotzbach said.
However, he is concerned about program fees and wonders if this is a
stealthy way to ultimately increase revenues for the school.
“For a program fee you don’t have as much accountability
for the use of those fees,” he said.
Glotzbach said the bottom line is that students need to pay attention
to what is going on in the state legislature, who have cut funding so
much that schools have tapped into student fees to fund their programs.
The SGA is looking at conducting a survey on student fees. The first
part will be to make the student aware of their fees, then getting input
as to the satisfaction of the fees as well as accounting for the use of
the fees.
“It is important for SGA to understand the dynamic of the student
body and understand what and how we can best serve our students,”
Glotzbach said.
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