As tuition rises across the University, schools are also increasing fees to provide specialized educational resources to students.
ASU President Michael Crow said the fees are important to some schools because they operate at a cost much higher than tuition. He said quality programs and faculty for the nursing, business, engineering and design schools come at a very high cost.
Crow said he wants ASU to have faculty members who are prominent members of their specialization, people who don’t come at a low cost.
“That’s who I want on our faculty so that our students can have access to the best,” he said.
Philip Regier, executive dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business, said the school is requesting a $300-per-year increase from students.
If approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, the money would be used for scholarship funds, career management and enhancement of technology and curriculum within the business school, Regier said.
“All of the money that we collect from the fee goes back to undergraduate education,” he said.
The business school currently has a $250 per semester fee for bachelor of science students that was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in 2003.
Regier said the new fee would also charge bachelor of arts students, who currently do not pay a fee because their program did not exist when the fee was approved.
“We have a lot more students now than we had when the fee was passed,” he said. “A big area of improvement that we can’t do with the current fee is expand the Career Management Center.”
Regier said the center was created as a result of the 2003 fee in order to help graduating students land jobs right out of college. He said there are currently four or five professionals serving 1,200 graduating students each year. The new fee would allow the school to hire more professionals to guide students, he said.
An increase in fees has nothing to do with recent University-wide budget cuts, Regier said. The fee is “for student engagement,” while budget cuts dealt mostly with administrative matters, he said.
Terri Shafer, an ASU spokeswoman, said the University would send a report to the Arizona Board of Regents with all tuition and program fee proposals.
The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering is proposing a new $400-per-semester fee for undergraduate students to pay for new equipment and technology.
Chemical engineering junior Hilary Waterman said she initially opposed the fee because the school’s intentions were unclear and she thought students would not see the results of their money.
Administrators from the engineering school did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
But Waterman said that after she discussed the plan with engineering administrators, she understands now how the money will benefit students and where it will go.
“Overall, I would say it’s good if it’s well-spent,” Waterman said. “I know it’s going to hurt. We’re all college students, we’re pretty much all dirt-poor.”
But Waterman said a fee increase is much better than a tuition hike because the fee money will stay within the engineering school.
She said many people pay much more money to go to an out-of-state or Ivy League school in part for access to better equipment. Since the fee money would fund such technology, she said it would benefit students’ education.
“We can’t expect to have this better education and not pay for it,” she said.
Waterman said students who have concerns about the fee make a valid point.
“$400 a semester can be the difference between eating and not eating for some people,” she said.
Schools need to make a convincing argument to their students before they raise a fee, Waterman said.
“I would say it’s good if it’s well spent. That’s one thing that we’re going to have to be vigilant against.”
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.
