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Why fees rise while services stagnate { October 27 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usavanguard.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/27/3f9e93d40fb5dhttp://www.usavanguard.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/27/3f9e93d40fb5d
Student fees are exhorbitant
Writer asks why fees rise so steeply, while services stagnate
by Jeff Poor
Staff Writer
October 27, 2003
If you give an inch, they will take a mile. Whether you know it or not, your student activities fees have increased nearly two-fold. During the 1998-1999 school year, a full-time student at the University of South Alabama paid $96 for two semesters in activity fees and in 2003, that same full-time student paid $176 for two semesters.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, inflation is only 2.8 percent. Something obviously doesnít add up here.
Does anyone wonder why this happens? Complacency on the part of students? Or the administration here wanting to make sure we can afford more wonderful intellectually stimulating presentations like the ìHeads versus Fedsî debate, which drew 500 people and cost $8,000?
Now donít get me wrong, I think students should pay some fee for the use of some of the facilities on campus, but $88 a semester is ridiculous for a school like USA. They also tack on an additional $8 for a ìstudent center fee,î which is already included in the activity fees of other schools in our state.
And how does the University of South Alabama stack up with other public schools in the state? At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which I feel is the closest thing to our institution since it is an urban commuter college, a student pays only $35 a semester.
At Auburn University, where student fees brought the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev to speak for the low cost of $87,000 fresh from a stop in Appleton, Wis. (not bad for a former communist discovering how wonderfully capitalism works), a student pays $98 a semester.
And at the University of Alabama, an appalling $136.25 is added to your bill for what they call the ìactivity/recreation/athletic privilegesî fee. Apparently, ìthe Machine,î as the SGA at the University of Alabama is referred to, have been lobbying for all the bureaucratic goodness these fees bring to the college atmosphere.
In this time of economic peril for our state government, after Alabamians overwhelmingly voted ìNoî to Amendment One, things are only going to get worse. Another tuition hike is imminent and Little Johnny and his parents have it bad enough making ends meet. They donít need an extra $100 added to their bill each semester.
Some of the organizations this money goes to are great, and they do a lot for the university, but I think it is time for a little fiscal responsibility on their part. Donít get me wrongóI donít want to bite the hand that feeds me, because I am sure the Vanguard gets a chunk of this money. However the Vanguard is somewhat self-sufficient through raising revenues from advertising to support itself.
So, what of substance that the everyday full-time college student uses regularly does this money go for? Does anyone wonder why a Coca-Cola out of the machine on campus costs 10 cents more than off campus? Wouldnít that be a great tangible benefit to be able to get a deal on a can of soda? Well, I guess I will have to settle for the discount I can get on movie tickets. How many movies do I have to go to so I can recoup my $88?
I look at some of the other ìperksî of being a student. Free counseling? The last place I am going when I want to discuss my personal demons is to school. The student activity center is great and it provides a lot of international students a place to blow off steam from the trials of school with a few rounds of ping-pong, but how many of the 13,286 students enrolled here actually use it?
I hear all the time how the student activity budget runs a surplus because not enough campus organizations go through the proper procedures to get the money. How about giving the students a rebate if that is the case?
And now you hear murmurs of a student transit system being put into place to alleviate traffic woes. Is someone in Frederick P. Whiddon Administration Building coming back late from lunch because all those darn commuter students are clogging up the roadways? Might as well look forward to another fee added to your bill to finance this service.
We see enough waste in the public sector of our lives. Why should I believe the University of South Alabama is any different?
And someone please explain to my why the fee itself has gone up so much. I am sure there was some banter when the fee was initially increased, but how many students are able to monitor this every time the fee is increased where there is such a high turnover rate for students on a year-to-year basis?
Probably not many students are still here at the University of South Alabama that were here in 1998. It is as if the university is fleecing you on an annual basis.
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