Along with impending but as of yet undecided general tuition increases, University students will see a rise in auxiliary fees -- money set aside specifically for University Transit Service, Safe Ride, athletics, Newcomb Hall, Student Health and other University programs -- for the 2008-09 academic year.
Colette Sheehy, University vice president for management and budget, said the cost of auxiliary fees will rise from $1,632 to $1,755 per student, a 7.5 percent increase.
"Auxiliary enterprises have to cover all direct and indirect costs from their own self-generated revenue," Sheehy said, noting they are not financially supported by the commonwealth. Sheehy said most of the auxiliary fee increases are because of salary increases, program additions or increasing energy costs. Specifically, most of the fee increase per student for transit is a result of UTS' installation of GPS bus locator systems and some route enhancements, Sheehy said. Safe Ride added a third van and two more security officers, while the increases related to the University's recreational facilities, such as the Aquatic & Fitness Center and Memorial Gym, are mostly the result of salary increases, Sheehy added.
Other auxiliary fees, including those that will benefit athletic programs and Newcomb Hall, will provide for higher salaries and maintenance funding reserves. Part of the $37 per student pledged to athletics is also for investment in Olympic sports, Sheehy said. Meanwhile, Student Health added a new mental health position, increased general medicine physician hours and converted some hourly wage nurse positions to full-time positions.
Sheehy said there will also be a new $18 Microsoft licensing fee introduced to students' auxiliary fees this year. Sheehy added that the fee should actually save an individual student money during his four years at the University.
"By paying this fee every year, a student [will get] the initial software ... and any kind of upgrade during [his] time at school," Sheehy said. "And you can take any version you have with you when you graduate."
A $6 reserve fee also is built in to the auxiliary fees, part of which, Sheehy said, will be used to fund the new student technology system that will soon replace ISIS.
Sheehy explained that in order for departments to receive increases in their auxiliary fees, they must first send a justification to the budget office. Then the budget office examines the fees to determine if they are close to those in the office's projected six-year financial plan, she said. If the budget office approves the justification and increase, the Board of Visitors must then approve the fee increases.
"We try to keep the increase reasonable," Sheehy said. "Mostly it's driven quite a bit by salary increases, which [are] driven by the state."
She added that the University has some of the lowest auxiliary fee costs per student in the commonwealth and said among other Virginia public institutions, the University is ranked the third lowest.
"We are over $1,000 less than the average of other public institutions," Sheehy said. "We're able to do that because we're such a large institution and luckily [have] an athletic program that has a larger source of revenue than some other schools."
Though the University's auxiliary fees may be lower than other schools, graduate students have expressed some hesitations about the costs, as graduate students might not use some of the services funded through the required auxiliary fees.
"Speaking on behalf of the Arts & Sciences Council, there's not much uproar on the year-to-year increases," Graduate Council Rep. David Hondula said.
He added, however, that the increases to transit and athletics fees, have concerned some graduate students.
"It is a little frustrating, but we understand that by nature it is going to serve more undergraduates," Hondula said.
Hondula also noted that changes in bus routes away from the graduate schools has made it harder for graduate students to take advantage of the transit system, yet they must still pay the transit fees.
"It is certainly moving in the wrong direction for grad students with the routes," Hondula said.
Hondula said part-time graduate students and research students have additional concerns with auxiliary fees for services such as University athletics.
"It's a very complicated argument because there are graduate students of so many classifications," Hondula said. "For the full-time students it's not really a big deal; it's for the part-time and research students that pay the athletic fees -- that's where we have a little bit of a problem."
He added that some of these students feel the auxiliary fees for athletics are not applicable to them, as they will most likely not use the University's athletic services.
"To them, it feels like they are paying something for nothing ... We understand that things get more expensive over time, [but it is] just the fact that [some of these fees were] there and [are] now increasing," Hondula said.
Hondula also noted that some concerned graduate students have already received support from staff regarding the reassessment of auxiliary fees.
"We've gotten some support from folks in the Office for Research and [Graduate] Studies [regarding] changing how fees are assessed for athletics, for [partial and research] graduate students," Hondula said.
Sheehy noted that while the budget office recognizes the concerns held by some students regarding auxiliary fees and their increases, it would be far too difficult to try targeting specific fees for specific types of students.
"There are years in which we hear from students or from deans from schools," Sheehy said. "Our response [is that] it's basically the cost of coming here ... If we had an elective fee system, the auxiliaries could never have a stable revenue stream ... we wouldn't be able to do a good job of budgeting."
The auxiliary fee increases will be reflected in next academic year's tuition levels, which have not yet been released.
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