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Next year, expect a bigger UH bill

By Nikie Johnson
Senior Staff Writer

UH students already facing a weak economy will be hit with a 19 percent increase in tuition and fees next year as well.

A $31 million increase in the Universityis tuition and fees was approved Thursday by the Board of Regents. Depending on which college students are in, some will be paying about $300 more next year, and some will be socked with an extra $1,500 on their fee bills.

The hardest-hit students will be those in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the College of Technology and the College of Business, as well as law students.

The students who will get off easiest will be those in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the College of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Social Work.

Most of the increase comes from fees, and most of that additional revenue will go to advising, technology and other student services.

Every year, the regents approve tuition and fee rates, but the increases this year are more than twice what regents have approved in years past.

Provost Edward Sheridan said the sharp increase in fees is due to two factors. UH is facing the double whammy of a horrible state economy and an increase in the cost of providing technology and other services to students.

"UH has always tried to keep fees and tuition as low as possible, and in general has done a good job with that," Sheridan said. In fact, he said, UH had been doing such a good job that it hadnit been getting the money for its added services.

"We realized we have never sought the funding, at least directly from the student, for the things we are providing," he said.

He said that, without the increase, UH might have to cut funding to many of the services it now provides. The quality of education students are getting would suffer as a direct result.

"If you come to UH, youire going to get a first-class education, and this is to make sure thatis possible," Sheridan said.

He stressed that, even though UH will cost more, students here will still pay less than those at other major Texas universities. He also said higher education in Texas is much less than in many other states.

To help counteract the increase, Sheridan said, more money would be available for scholarships and financial aid. He said that while some students will come out of college owing more money, the data on the subject gives no evidence that more students drop out of college when costs increase.

For the first time, UH students will be paying more in fees than in tuition. This year, fees were 45 percent of the total cost of education. Next year, that will rise to 51.5 percent.

The cost of tuition, which the Texas Legislature sets for all state universities, will go up less than 5 percent. But students will be paying 36.3 percent more in fees next year than they are now.

Of the fees being increased or added, most are in the category of incidental academic fees ­ those that are assessed by a particular college, not to all students. Those fees will go up $19.3 million, to bring in a total of $44.9 million next year.

Administrators in colleges with some of the larger fee increases both stressed that the additional revenue is necessary.

Arthur Warga, dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Business, said the extra $4.1 million his college will bring in will be essential, and that the students were actually the ones pushing for the fee increases.

"They understand what the benefits would be to them," he said.

Hiring more talented faculty members is a top priority, Warga said: "That is the mantra around here." Although fee revenue canit be used to pay faculty salaries, it can be used to free up other money, he said.

Warga said he expects the higher costs will actually increase demand at the school. UHis business programs are some of the least expensive programs in the nation.

"That doesnit always help your reputation," he said.

Michael A. Olivas, associate dean for student life at the UH Law Center, said most of the increases in his college will go to pay for improvements to the law library, which was destroyed during 2001is Tropical Storm Allison.

"We really desperately need the money," he said. "The library lost more than 300,000 volumes during the flood. We had no choice but to make the difficult decision to raise fees," he said.

The Law Center will bring in an additional $1.3 million, which will go to the library as well as to audio-visual equipment and the law copy center.

The most significant University-wide changes are an increase in the library fee, which will bring an additional $2.7 million to the library system, and a $2 per semester credit hour fee for advising.

Sheridan said UH is developing a new advising system that will get advisers from all colleges on the same page, so "no matter what college youire in, youill get the same story."

Raising fees requires a long process, Sheridan said, which includes the college deans, a special fee committee, the provostis office and the Board of Regents. The proposed fee increases are presented to the campus during two forums in the Spring semester. In the January forums, students were noticeably absent.
 

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