The Traveler

Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Larry Ash The Pat Walker Health Center is one of many facilities that receive funding form student fees.

UA students pay more than just tuition every year and get more than education in return.

Aside from tuition, college fees and specific course fees, students pay a number of other fees, which are applied to various student benefits on campus. Many students said they just pay whatever it is they owe and are not even aware of the fees they pay or where the fees go.

"I don't really use most of these [benefits]," said Eric Norman, a junior at the UA. "I didn't know we paid an Enhanced Learning Center fee."

Norman said of the fees listed, the ELC fee was the one probably most beneficial to him personally.

Joel Tonyan, a graduate assistant at the UA, also said he approves of the ELC fee.

"The writing center in the English department is a huge resource," he said

The typical undergraduate attending 15 hours a semester pays $525.55 in university fees. This is aside from the $2,505 in tuition, college fees up to $27.33 a credit hour and course specific fees that can range from $3.50 to $130 per credit hour.

Students also pay fees for programs and services, such as language placement tests, parking permits and study abroad.

The regular university fees help pay for a number of student benefits. The Associated Student Government fee generates more than $300,000 a year and funds 300 registered student organizations, ASG President Carter Ford said.

Ford said $16,000 of the money goes to Chancellor's Scholars, $3,000 is taken back to pay "bad debt," which is money refunded to students who withdraw or drop classes, and a portion goes to staff salaries.

The ASG is left with a little more than $250,000, Ford said.

Five percent of this goes to the ASG operating budget - paying for paperwork, expenses and a few programs, Ford said. Sixteen percent is for the ASG executive budget, which pays stipends for the officers, office expenses and funding for programs like Homecoming, and three percent of the money goes toward the ASG senate for similar expenses, he said. The last 81 percent is allocated for RSOs.

RSOs submit a budget to an appropriations committee made up of ASG members, and the committee decides, in a legal and neutral way, how much money will be given to the RSO, Ford said.

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