Page 61 - Crisis in Higher Education

Underlying Problem • 35

2.3 SPECIAL FEES
Why do colleges and universities have tuition and fees? The glib answer
might be to lessen the impact of sticker shock when parents and students
consider the cost of an education. The more honest answer is that tuition
was intended to cover all learning aspects of higher education except
buying books. Initially, fees tended to be for student activities that cov-
ered admissions to football games, student clubs, and intramural sports.
Over the years, student activities fees increased to build student unions,
offer healthcare, build large and well-appointed recreation centers, and
even provide legal services.
Over time, fees were added to support laboratory classes in disciplines
like science and engineering—buying things like test tubes and chemicals
for chemistry lab or equipment and cement for concrete lab. This put a
toe on the line between instruction and extracurricular activities because
lab fees supported instruction and learning. The logic may have been that
these items were like books in that they are important learning tools.
As computer access became a bigger part of higher education, fees were
added to build computer labs for students and support access to software.
This took another stepping over the line separating instruction and extra-
curricular activities. This line was obliterated when some universities
began adding fees in the form of surcharges when students enrolled in cer-
tain courses. As an example, a student taking an advanced undergraduate
course in finance or accounting might have to pay an additional amount
per credit hour to attend this course. These surcharges were often used to
circumvent rules established by state government to limit tuition increases
at public universities.
Digging deeply into the amounts and types of student fees is challenging
because most data sources combine and report the cost of tuition and fees
as a single number. Even when fees are reported separately, there is lim-
ited detail about the specific uses and the amounts of fees. Data are avail-
able for individual universities, but aggregated data showing overall trends
are lacking. So it is not clear how much is spent across all universities to
support sports teams, the recreation center, or student activities.
In 2010, the Office of the State Auditor for Colorado prepared a detailed
performance audit on fees in higher education at state-supported, public
colleges and universities. The audit was conducted in response to a legisla-
tive request for a review of student fee policy and student input into the