Course fees under review

Kayla Webley
2004-06-03
The Daily

Administrators and the ASUW are reviewing the UW's current policy regarding course fees after frustration on the ASUW's part with ambiguity surrounding the fees.

Compounding the frustration was the perception by the ASUW that administrators would hear its recommendations, agree and do nothing.

But as of yesterday, the UW and the ASUW have agreed to work together to bring the policies governing course fees up to date.

Course fees, which range from $10 to $50 per course, are charged to recover the expenses of the course, either partially or fully, and to control demand for services.

The policy for course fees has not changed or been modified since its inception in 1988.

"Because the policies established are now 16 years old, they have not kept pace with the ways in which course fees are used," said George Bridges, dean of undergraduate education. "The policies need to be changed and brought up to date."

Members of ASUW, through separate talks with administrators in December of 2003 and March of 2004, have proposed a number of changes to the current policy.

The recommendations would change the way course fees are implemented, adding consultation within departments with tech fees with faculty and students. The ASUW also recommends that the fees be better defined in UW policy and all paperwork justifying course fees be sent to the provost's office.

Following each meeting, the ASUW received verbal assurance from both Bridges and David Thorud, the UW's provost, that the proposed changes were reasonable and that Bridges would work on implementing them.

Following this assurance, the lack of action on the part of the administration led to frustrations among members of the ASUW.

"We were under the impression that Dean Bridges was working on updating this policy statement because he had given us various updates throughout the quarter ... but nothing had really been done," said Sam Castic, ASUW Board of Directors. "It's only been recently that we have really seen any progress come out of this ... it's been quite a few months where nothing really has been done; that led to a lot of our frustration."

Bridges, however, said things are on schedule to see changes take effect in the fall.

Yesterday afternoon student leaders, including Castic and Enrique Gonzalez, chair of Affordable Tuition Now, presented their recommendations to the University Budget Committee.

According to Bridges, who attended the closed-door budget advisory meeting, both the president and provost agreed to pursue the changes proposed by the students and host a follow-up meeting in two weeks finalizing the language in the students' recommendations.

"Now we are just hoping that everything can get wrapped up by the end of the quarter and over the summer such that the policy gets updated, so that by the time students come in fall quarter they know where their money is going and what the fees are being charged for," said Castic.

The administration and the ASUW are concerned that there is no uniform way for deans to implement and spend the fee.

"We found over the last year some inconsistencies in the ways in which course fees have been implemented across the colleges," said Bridges.

Bob Mugerauer, dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, heads one of the colleges Gonzalez named as "suspicious" in the way it managed fees.

According to Gonzalez, the college is suspect because there are inconsistencies between the detailed plan from Mugerauer outlining how course fees are implemented and the documentation on file with the administration.

However, Mugerauer has a very specific process involving two faculty committees and a student committee if he wants to use course fees to supplement state funds, and has a process in place to refund part of the fees if too much money is collected.