With the possible implementation of new program fees later this week, some students are concerned with paying more money for their major, while others said they support fees as long as they know where the revenue will go.
Certain colleges are proposing program fees that will be voted on Thursday at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting in Tempe.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona have spent the last few months in discussion with UA administration to ensure students are consulted to decide where money goes, said Alistair Chapman, ASUA president.
After meeting with the deans of the affected colleges as well as consulting student opinion, ASUA made a list of recommendations they want the regents to consider, said Chapman, a molecular and cellular biology senior.
Among these recommendations is a student advisory board that would oversee allocation of money and would ensure each college consult its students, according to the ASUA report.
ASUA is also asking for Town Hall to give students the opportunity to voice concerns and for annual surveys to be conducted.
The program fees do not affect graduate students as dramatically as undergraduate students because most graduate and professional programs already have fees, said Amanda Brobbel, the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council.
Brobbel, a graduate student studying English, said graduate students only deal with one college, unlike undergraduate students, and they have had an easier time advocating for themselves.
Brobbel said most of the colleges support the fees because they see a direct benefit to the programs.
The pharmacy program, for example, is proposing an increase from $4,500 to $7,000 that will only impact incoming freshman, according the Arizona Board of Regents fee report.
Brobbel said pharmacy students are happy with the increase because the school is still reasonably inexpensive and ranked one of the best nationally.
A few years ago, the planning program was cut, so students in the program have been supportive of fees in order to save the program, Brobbel said.
The Eller College of Management is proposing an increase to $750 annually, a 50 percent increase from the fee instated two years ago.
In early March, the Eller College Student Council conducted a survey among their students to gather student opinion about the fee, said Ryan Jennings, ECSC president.
Although ECSC is not taking a stance on the fee, 78 percent of business students surveyed opposed the $250 increase.
The results, which were submitted to the regents last week, showed students were evenly split on support for the fee. Of the 508 students surveyed, 51 percent did not support any increase and 49 percent supported some increase.
However, 66 percent said they would be more likely to support the fee if it benefited the area they indicated as high priority.
The three highest priority areas were class availability, faculty retention and recruitment, and advising, according to the survey results.
Matt Blake, a finance junior in the Eller College, said he did not take the survey, but said the fee would be worth it.
"I'd rather pay more money for a better education and a better college ranking than worry about paying $250 a semester," Blake said. "I'd rather have my degree worth more."
Blake said he didn't care about knowing exactly where the money went as long as it went toward recruiting better faculty and enhancing the college reputation.
"I'd like to see better quality teachers in upper division classes," Blake said.
The College of Engineering, which does not have a differential fee, is proposing a $300 annual fee, according to the regents report.
Patrick Edwards, an engineering freshman, said he was generally pleased with the programs he has seen this year, but would like to see what more could be improved.
"I'd like to see the money go into more teaching assistants, because sometimes they don't have TAs to staff the facility," Edwards said.
Edwards said he would not necessarily need to see dollar-for-dollar where the money goes, but would like to see administration take the initiative to approach students about the fee.
Jennifer Watson, an engineering freshman, said although she might support the fee, she does not want to pay more than necessary.
"If it were up to me, I wouldn't want to be paying more than I already am," Watson said. "But if there was a fee, I'd want to know the money is going to good use."