by Al Greenwood
Daily Cougar StaffOne UH student and one reporter from The Daily Cougar showed up Wednesday at a forum to discuss a proposed 150 percent increase in UH students' "General Use Fee."
John Moore, Students' Association speaker pro-tempore and current SA presidental candidate, said he stumbled upon the conference after his classes.
"I went to the UC and that's when I saw the presentation," he said. "I'm very concerned. We don't have any say in the matter."
The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs issued only one notice regarding the forum. That notice appeared on Page 6 of Wednesday's Daily Cougar.
"You have to have a forum" before increasing the General Use Fee, said Elwyn Lee, UH vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.
Currently, the GUF is $12 per credit hour. The proposed increase would hike the rate to $30 per credit hour beginning in Fall 1996.
Fran Howell, UH interim director of Media Relations, released a written statement Thursday from the administration which read, "Holding the student hearing the same day the ad announcing it ran in The Daily Cougar was done inadvertently with no ill intent."
Another meeting to discuss the increase will take place at noon Tuesday, March 5, in the Kiva Room of Farish Hall.
"I'm telling everyone to show up," Moore said.
After the Wednesday forum, Lee said, "Even with this increase, the university is still a bargain."
A written explanation of the increase handed out at the meeting showed that the increase will raise the university's total annual income from the GUF to approximately $20 million from $8.9 million, an increase of $11 million.
Lee said the university will spend more than $7 million to offer classes that would otherwise be canceled, increasing faculty and improving computer technology. He said about $3.2 million is needed to offset cuts in UH's state funding.
The GUF was last increased in 1993.
UH administrators Lee, John Ivancevich and James Hale presented UH's position to Moore and the reporter.