By Jasilyn Spivey
Staff Writer
The question that goes around campus every semester is “why is my bill so expensive?”
Students complain and then move on to the next semester creating an endless cycle. I am one of those students, but I started to research what we are paying as students. I went to the bursar’s office and asked for an itemized receipt of my bill. The office also gave me a paper explaining every fee.
You pay for tuition. The flat rate for 12 to 18 hours in-state is $3,364.01. For out-of-state, it is $7,121.66. Then you have housing, which is different for everyone depending on where you stay, in-state or out-of-state, traditional or non-traditional. Either way, as a student you do pay a substantial amount in fees. The three main fees you pay are the matriculation fee, activity/facilities fee, and the distance learning fee.
Starting with the matriculation fee, this fee covers the cost of resources and services provided to students. Academic records, security, career services, counseling, student technology, and library services are all examples of this. For both in-state and out-of-state, it is $30.18 per credit hour. So, say you are taking the minimum of 12 credit hours for a full-time student, you would be paying $363.16 every semester.
Then, the activity/facility fee costs $22.83 per credit hour. It is used to support debt service of constructed and/or renovated facilities, facility operations, student support services, athletics, and other student activities. Again, say you are doing the minimum for a full-time student; the cost would be $273.96. Now, if you take any online or hybrid classes, you pay $88.33 per credit hour. The fee is used to enhance online course delivery.
If you’re just taking in-person classes and we add all of this up, the total is $637.12. There are still several other fees, like the classroom improvement fee, which costs $10 per traditional course (meaning face-to-face classes). For traditional classes and no online classes, you would be paying $40 per semester, assuming you are only taking 12 credits.
There is also the wellness facility fee costing $98.35 per semester. This fee is to ensure the wellness center is equipped with exercise rooms, a cardio area, weights, suites, meeting rooms, a clinic, and offices. This would be the John W. Montgomery Multipurpose Center.
There is a publication, health, cultural, and recreation fee. The purpose of this fee is to up the quality of student life. It offsets the costs for health staff and facilities, supports the student newspaper and yearbook, and some cultural and recreational activities. This totals $105.17 per semester for each student.
The last fee is the Student Government Association (SGA) fee. $104.52 per semester helps support student initiatives, allocate student activity funds, and communicate student issues and opportunities to staff and the facility.
Take out the tuition, room, board, books, and laundry you are paying $946.14 in fees. The next question is, are we seeing improvements come from these fees?
Jasilyn Spivey is a sophomore broadcast journalism major.
