The Oregon University System’s fee committee made a progressive step Friday in meeting with the State Board of Higher Education.
The committee presented its proposals to the board, offering OUS institutions various fee structures to go about eliminating resource fees during the next three to four years. The resource fee discussion has stemmed from concern that students are unaware of the extra costs the fees procure, which are not covered by financial aid packages. Programmatic resource fees, based on a student’s area of study, can cost students hundreds of dollars, but some students remain unaware of PRFs because they are charged separate from tuition.
This year, 28 percent of a resident undergraduate student’s “Tuition and Fees” is charged for “universal resource fees,” including health service, technology and building fees. The new fee structure will be designed to create more fee transparency, so students will be aware of all costs at all times. Each OUS institution will reform its individual fee structure.
Technically, tuition will be higher, but only because the resource fees will be charged via tuition so students could know exactly what they will be paying before they see their bill. It would be one high, flat number instead of several smaller ones that students must add together. However, the overall cost will remain the same.
That process could happen in one of two ways, depending upon the institution. Either all programmatic resource fees would be rolled into tuition, or students would pay differential tuition, which varies depending on the program and its associated fees.
OUS Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Jay Kenton said the fee committee wants to “encourage campuses to work with their student governments, and work through it mutually in a way everybody understands and agrees with.”
Currently, Kenton said, there is some misunderstanding surrounding the resource fee debate.
But Kenton said the committee will consider the issues raised at the meeting and return to the board in January with, at the board’s request, further information regarding the plan. At that point the Board will vote to accept or decline the proposal.
“We need to think about some of the comments, and we need to possibly modify the proposal somewhat,” said Kenton.
The main concern at the meeting was timing. Initially the committee had hoped to enact the new fee structure in time for the 2008-09 academic year but implementation may have to wait until fall 2009.
Other proposed policy changes include no new undergraduate resource fees of any type following the new structure implementation, all universal resource fees rolled into tuition, and one-time resource fees replaced by an approved matriculation or transcription fee. The committee also requested that financial aid cover fees “to the extent that this is feasible.”
[email protected]