CHRIS CHIEGO

Board of Regents should seek student input on possible fee hikes

By:

Posted: 12/3/08

While Georgians voted Tuesday in the state runoff election, a different kind of vote taking place today will have an immediate impact on our college education.

In a last-minute, barely publicized move, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announced Monday that they would vote today to add a $100 per semester fee for students - a fee that would not be covered under the HOPE Scholarship.

According to current policy, as stated in section 704.021 of the Board's own policy manual, mandatory fee increases are supposed to be voted on in April and take effect the next semester, after going through a lengthy review process.

Instead of following that procedure, the Board decided to announce its vote Monday and hold the vote today with only a media advisory as notification.

By voting today, the board is also ignoring another clause in its policy that requires a committee made up of at least 50 percent students to review each student fee increase.

How can the board get away with ignoring its own rules? Easy - it simply can vote to do so.

On the agenda for the meeting today is a measure to waive section 704.021 and pass the fee anyway with zero student input.

Students aren't the only target of the Board today. Faculty and staff also are being threatened with another plan to cut employer contributions on health care from 75 to 70 percent.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, this means employees would pay $16.78 to $65.58 more per month and retirees would $12.78 to $31.48 more per month.

Even if these two quick-fix revenue measures pass, things will still get worse for the University System. A 6 percent budget cut of $136 million was approved in October, but a likely 8 percent cut would total $182 million.

Together, the new fee and health care plans will only offset $28 million of that gap, necessitating even more budget cuts around the state.

During these trying times, the Board and universities around the state should be looking at ways to cut mandatory fees instead of raising them.

It makes no sense to keep charging students an activities fee that pay for T-Pain concerts while the University is forced to add mandatory fees or gut graduate student stipends.

Even if HOPE covers most of the mandatory fees for now, a steep rise in tuition or a drop in lottery revenue could herald trouble in the future.

The Board ought to be preparing and seeking feedback on a reasonable tuition increase, not scheduling stealth votes on short-term fixes without student input.

Regardless of the fiscal solution it eventually decides on, the board never should circumvent its own policies and purposefully ignore the voices of the students.

- Chris Chiego is a senior from Memphis,
Tenn., majoring in international affairs and history.