PHOENIX - The Arizona Board of Regents approved yesterday proposals that will require undergraduate and graduate students to pay new and increased fees for special courses and programs next semester.
The special fees for undergraduate courses were approved by six of the seven regents, with the new regent, Ernest Calder—n, casting the sole dissenting vote.
Starting in the fall, a new fee of $90 will be required of all students enrolling in Analyzing Financial Information, FIN 401, and the fee for Recombinant DNA Techniques, MCB 473/573, will jump from $50 to $150.
In accordance with the board's policy, universities can't impose additional special course fees amounting to more than $50 without regents approval.
Provost George Davis said though he didn't know the exact number of courses that will impose special fees amounting to less than $50, he said it is a "big number."
The board unanimously approved the special program and course fees for graduate programs. Graduate students pursuing a master's of architecture degree and master's of landscape architecture degree will pay $1,000 on top of tuition. Architecture students won't have to pay any of the fee because of scholarship support already provided.
Graduate students pursuing a master's of gerontology and gerontology certificate next fall will be assessed a $100 per credit fee. Students already enrolled in the programs won't have to pay the fee.
All students taking online graduate engineering courses from the colleges of engineering at the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University will see a hike of $202 on the existing fee of $200.
The undergraduate and graduate fees were originally scheduled to be voted on together. But after Calder—n objected that he would vote on undergraduate course fees and graduate program fees differently, the board voted on them separately.
Calder—n said talking with graduate students who thought the fees were necessary convinced him to support those fees. But undergraduate fees, he said, went against the missions of the universities and gave him "philosophical heartburn."
"It's a poll tax," Calder—n said. "If you don't pay, you can't vote. If you can't afford the fee, you can't take the course."
Calder—n also said he was concerned with the timing of the fees, which follow two consecutive tuition hikes the board approved in the span of a year.
"What's next, a plague of locusts?" he asked. "It's still money out of somebody's pocket."
When ASU president Michael Crow said the fees were necessary to provide "exotic classes" that improve the quality of education the universities offer students, Calder—n shot back.
"If they're so exotic, do we have any business offering them?"
Davis said Calder—n raised an important question but said the two undergrad courses the UA will charge more for will go toward necessary expenses.
Davis said all fees are meant to help colleges after years of budget cuts and will improve the quality of the courses and programs.
Fifteen percent of all special program fees will be set aside for financial aid.
Davis said he is forming a task force to address differentiated fees. He said he hopes the task force will advise him on some of the issues he's concerned with, and wants to assure that the university waives fees for students eligible for financial aid.
He also said he is concerned that the graduate college will decrease the stipend it provides needy graduate students because it will assume that the 15 percent of special program fees set aside for financial aid will take care of them.
Jake Harwood, director of the graduate program in gerontology, said the special fee for the school of gerontology is part of the plan that will keep the program alive.
The program was slated for elimination under Focused Excellence last year.
"When we accepted that we would run on no money at all, they said we could continue to exist," Harwood said.
He also said the program would expand its course offerings as a result of the imposed fee and that funding from community sources might shoulder some of the burden.
Davis said about 60 students will be taking the biology course in the fall and that about 90 students take the financing course each year.
According to the UA Web site, the finance department now requires fees for 30 of its undergraduate courses. All apply to winter and summer session classes.
The molecular and cellular biology department imposes fees on students taking five of its courses, one of them of the 500-level.
In total, 61 of the university's 150 departments require fees for at least one of its courses.