Page 176 - Crisis in Higher Education

Becoming Student-Centered • 147

in theory, support learning. Chapter 4 describes problems with the notifi-
cation, collection, and use of fees. The following changes should be made.

1. Universities should adopt policies that student fees cannot, under
any circumstances, be used for academic programs or academic-
related administrative purposes, including building or refurbishing
classroom facilities, faculty offices, and administrative spaces.
2. Students should have the right to decide whether they pay student
fees or not. If fees do not support learning, why must students
pay them? If they do not pay the fees, they do not get the services.
Students can make the decision to opt out for many reasons. Students
may not have interest in sports, clubs, and recreation; they may pre-
fer spending money on other forms of entertainment and exercise;
or they may live at home and commute. Some students are married
with children, work full-time, and are part-time students, and other
students have jobs, study hard, and attend classes. Neither group has
time to participate in these activities. Other students may enroll in
distance learning classes and never or rarely step foot on campus.
3. Tuition dollars must be spent for academic purposes and for admin-
istration that is directly related to academics. This precludes univer-
sities from increasing tuition to cover nonacademic amenities like
sports programs and recreation centers.
4. All costs for learning, such as day-to-day student access to com-
puters or library expenses, must be paid by tuition. When there
are academic expenses for particular courses that compel an addi-
tional charge, such as laboratory courses requiring expensive
equipment and supplies or design courses needing extraordinary
computer access, these must be clearly designated as “tuition sur-
charges.” These exceptions should be rare and well documented by
the institution.

Part of becoming student-centered is offering better services such as
online registration and automated systems so students can easily monitor
progress toward graduation. As universities seek to make these improve-
ments, and they should, it is essential to use technology, lean thinking,
and value stream mapping to design innovative systems that eliminate
waste and use resources more efficiently. Too often, universities simply
automate the current manual process, capturing the error and redundan-
cies and not taking advantage of capabilities inherent in the technology.