NT Regents Raise Fees, Non-Athletic

[OldTimer]

UNT regents recommend higher fees

08/24/2002

By Matthew Zabel / Staff Writer

Students would pay about $200 more in fees to attend the University of North Texas beginning with the spring 2003 semester, a Board of Regents committee recommended Friday.

The full board is expected to approve the two new fees and three fee increases at its regular quarterly meeting Saturday.

One of the fee increases, the foreign student admission application fee, is a one-time charge to foreign students only. It is slated to increase from $50 to $75. The other four fee proposals mean undergraduate students would pay $13.55 more per credit hour, or about $203 for a student taking 15 credit hours. Graduate students would pay about $10.30 more per credit hour.

University officials said the fees seem the best way to provide improved services to students.

"I realize for most students that?s a lot of money," said Dr. Norval Pohl, UNT?s president. "We looked at those different categories, and I am persuaded that we?ll do students a service with that money that will make the fees worth it to them."

Hans Hendley, UNT?s student government president, said Friday he was only vaguely familiar with the new fees and the increases, but he doesn?t believe the fees are all bad.

"Overall, people don?t like prices to go up, and that?s understandable," Mr. Hendley said. "Education at UNT is one of the most affordable in the nation, but costs go up. People will be upset that fees are going up, but what can you do?"

Tom Lazo Sr., a member of the board?s budget and finance committee, rigorously questioned the justification for each fee before voting with the rest of the committee to recommend them.

"I don?t like to come to a meeting to raise fees," said Mr. Lazo, an executive for two technology companies in Dallas. "On the other hand, I understand the problems of finance the university faces. While I might not agree with it personally, I understand the situation we are in, and sometimes we have to do what we don?t like."

University officials proposed a new advising support fee to hire more academic advisers, reducing their student-to-adviser ratio from about 700-to-1 to about 400-to-1.

During the meeting, Dr. Pohl said UNT?s student advising has gotten worse. Turnover is high among advisers, and students complain the quality has suffered. He attributed those problems to low pay and a high workload for advisers.

This fee, he said, will allow the university to hire more advisers, increase their salaries and reduce turnover.

Only undergraduate students will pay the advising fee, Dr. Pohl said. Faculty members will continue to advise graduate students.

Another new fee will be a transportation fee, which officials will use to expand UNT?s campus shuttle service and to create more bicycle paths and walking paths on campus. Part of the fee, officials said, would be to extend the university shuttle system to some apartment complexes that are mostly occupied by students.

Richard Rafes, UNT?s interim vice chancellor and vice president for administrative affairs, told the board that the best short-term strategy to handle traffic on campus would be "to try to keep those cars off campus and at apartments."

As a trial during the last school year, officials said, UNT extended its shuttle service to the University Courtyard Apartments at Bonnie Brae and Hickory streets. Officials estimated that service kept 500 cars off campus.

Mr. Lazo initially objected to this fee and challenged officials to find a way to make faculty and staff pay for the service, too.

"If we?re all going to improve transportation, then we all ought to pay for it," he said.

In addition to the new fees, UNT officials asked the board to increase the library and technology fees. Those increases will allow the university to spend state money on construction projects rather than on technology and library resources.

"I think students will say that you hurt the library if you take money away from the library," Dr. Pohl said. "Students don?t want to see any of those services suffer. While they?re not going to jump up and down about a fee increase, they will all benefit from it."

UNT new fees and fee increases

The University of North Texas Board of Regents will consider approving two new fees and increasing three existing fees, charging students an extra $13.55 per credit hour. All the fee changes would take effect in the spring 2003 semester.

New fees

Advising support fee (undergraduates only) ? $3.25

Transportation fee ? $3.50

Fee increases

Library fee ? from $4 to $8.50

Technology fee ? from $7.20 to $9.50

Foreign student admissions application fee ? from $50 to $75 (one-time fee, foreign students only)