Page 64 - Crisis in Higher Education

38 • Crisis in Higher Education

factors about the governance and use of these fees. Following is a listing
and brief discussion of their findings.

1. Student inputs on fees: Students did not have consistent opportuni-
ties to offer inputs regarding the amount of the assessment or its use.
2. Fee amount: Some fee amounts seemed to be higher than needed to
cover expenses.
3. Fee use: Approximately 30% of the student fee expenses reviewed by
the Legislative Audit Committee appeared to have expenses that did
not match their stated purpose or violated policy of the Colorado
Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). An additional 9%
appeared to have questionable usages of funds: (1) funds were com-
mingled with other revenue sources so it was not clear what the fees
paid for; (2) the purpose of the fee was undefined or broadly defined
so the universities could spend the fee revenue on virtually any-
thing; and (3) the expense was not consistent with the university’s
guidelines.
4. Fee disclosure: Neither the Department of Education nor the institu-
tions always provided students, parents, and others with clear, easily
accessible, and complete information on the existence of fees and
their amounts.
5. Review process: Nearly all of the institutional fee plans (21 out of 25)
did not contain all of the components designated by the policy of
the CCHE. Since at least 2006, the Department of Education has not
submitted required reports to the General Assembly of Colorado
that assess the consistency of institutional fee policy with policy of
the CCHE on Higher Education. Finally, some institutions incor-
rectly reported some fees as academic or academic-facility fees.
6. Fee framework: There is no clear distinction between expenses that
should be paid from tuition versus fees. 2

Based on the Office of the State Auditor’s Report, three important
factors regarding the size, governance, and use of student fees emerge.
The causes for these problems and means for resolving them require
further examination.

1. Although fees are much lower than tuition, they appear to be grow-
ing more rapidly than tuition, which in turn is growing much more
rapidly than the rate of inflation.