Board of Trustees Announces Fee Increases For Students

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Board of Trustees announces fee increases for students

"The Board of Trustees approved fee increases for students that will go into effect for the 2017-2018 academic year at their meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

The proposed fee increases included $178 in housing and $164 in board fees in a plan designed to increase the fees by 3 percent each year through Fall 2019.

“The three-year plan was adopted to give more predictability to students, their families and the University in planning their finances,” UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said in a press release published by UConn Today.

“It’s a moderate, reasonable increase that is probably due,” UConn Undergraduate Student Government President Dan Byrd said. Byrd said that he is pleased that the fee increases were only moderate.

Byrd said that while he is disappointed that fees for students were increased, he understands that they were due to be updated since room and board fees have not been altered since 2014.

“I’m not all for increasing prices, but I think it needs to be seen from their (the university’s) perspective,” Allison Rice, a fifth-semester political science major, said.

Rice said that she thinks that there could have possibly been cuts to other areas so that the fee increases could have been avoided.

“There could have been cuts in other places,” Rice said. “We don’t need flowers all the time and green grass everywhere.”"

 

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Review of Student Fees Announced - UConn Today

President Susan Herbst is creating a committee of staff, faculty, and students who will undertake a comprehensive review of student fees at UConn and recommend potential changes to those fees and the University’s overall fee structure.

Herbst announced the committee’s formation during Wednesday’s UConn Board of Trustees meeting, and she plans to appoint its members within coming weeks. Scott Jordan, UConn’s chief financial officer and executive vice president for administration, will serve as chairman of the group.

Trustees review UConn’s undergraduate and graduate student fees each year. Those fees pay for non-academic programs that range from student health services to transportation, room and board, technology infrastructure, student government, and other programs.

The new committee will review issues such as ways to simplify the fee structure, whether some services funded by a fee should be funded another way, if the University applies the fees consistently, and whether any fees should be eliminated, created, or combined.

UConn has held student fees steady for the last three years, despite reductions in state appropriations and increased operating costs.