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Flat fee could save a few bucks
Proposal would trim full-time student bill while others pay more
By Clayton Woullard
cwoullar@mscd.edu

Most Metro students could find a few extra bucks in their pocket next semester if Metro’s Board of Trustees approves a proposed change in student fees.

The board will decide at its next meeting on a proposal to convert the student affairs fee to a flat fee. If the trustees approve the change, in May they would decide on how much the flat fee would cost. They are considering flat fee costs of $48.50, $51.50 and $55.

The Student Affairs Board is urging the trustees to approve the $55 flat fee level, because it would provide about $300,000 additional revenue to allocate to programs for the 2007-2008 school year. This would allow the SAB to come close to meeting all the budget requests for next year.

The president’s cabinet voted to support the flat fee change on March 5. If approved, the fee change would go into effect this fall.

The fee is based on the number of credit hours a student is enrolled in, with a cap at $58.29 for students taking eight credit hours or more. According to Andrew Bateman, speaker pro tempore of the Student Government Assembly and vice chair of the SAB, 70 percent of Metro students are enrolled in eight credit hours or more each semester.

“I think it’s really a win-win situation,” Bateman said. “The majority of students will pay less, and programs will have more money.”

However, part-time students taking fewer than eight credit hours would pay more. Approval of a $55 flat fee would mean nearly a $25 increase for a student taking three credit hours and about a $12 increase for a student taking six credit hours.

“I don’t care,” said Theresa Callahan, a Metro student taking six credit hours this semester. “If it’s only going to be like an extra $15, so what?”

She said she uses hardly any campus services except the library, which is not funded by the student affairs fee.Bateman said he received three negative e-mail responses from students who argued they shouldn’t have to pay the fee because they never use the services.

The student affairs fee funds 16 Metro programs, including the Auraria Early Learning Center, Peer Education Program, the SGA, Student Activities, Career Services and Campus Recreation at Auraria. Last year the SAB allocated $2,014,000 to programs. If the trustees approve a flat fee of $55, the SAB would have $2,374,000 to allocate this year.

Bateman said if the trustees do not approve the fee change, under the current system the student affairs fee will likely rise to more than $60 for students taking eight credit hours or more to adjust for a rise in the cost of living this year.

“It’s been a long time before any of the programs have seen an increase,” said Arliss Sunderwirth Webster, director of student travel at Metro and a member of the SAB. “With a lot of the direct benefit programs … (the SAB) have had to turn people away because there’s not enough money.”

The SAB first proposed the fee change in October, citing statistics that said the ratio of part- and full-time students who use services funded by the Student Affairs Fee is similar to the ratio of part- and full-time students enrolled at Metro. Therefore, the board argued, all students should pay the same amount, since the services are used equally.

“Even if they stop in to see a speaker, that’s a service funded by the student affairs fee,” Webster said.

She said the flat fee of $55 is justified because a greater number of students are paying more for services all students use.

“We feel that it’s not fair to the students who are paying the fee to have to subsidize those who are not,” Webster said. “We just feel that it’s not an unreasonable expectation at all.”

On Feb. 26 Bateman and members of the SGA held a student forum about student fees. Out of 150 responses, 80 percent of students were in favor of the flat fee.

Bateman said the SAB is concerned the trustees could reject the fee change because of a possible 5 percent tuition increase, saying there are too many increases at once.

A flat fee was last proposed during the 2002-2003 school year, but it was vetoed at the president’s cabinet level. The proposed flat fee was revenue neutral, meaning it would not have added additional revenue. The fee was last raised to adjust for the rise in cost of living during the 1999-2000 school year.