Keren G. Raz Columnist

University to cover its operating costs

The UA's financial situation is dire.

The university is receiving $13 million less this year than it received from the Legislature in the midst of budget cuts in 2001-2002.

Budget cuts might appear to have come to a halt in recent years, but the truth is that they still exist in the form of de facto budget cuts, which don't grab the headlines but still damage university finances. For example, this past year the legislature didn't cut the university budget, but it did force the university to cover more health care costs and enrollment costs.

Since it looks as if the conservative legislature up in Phoenix isn't going to try to solve the problem, it's up to the universities to look for other revenue sources, and they should look for them more aggressively in one particular area that has proven to work: program fees.

Two years ago the Arizona Board of Regents talked favorably about what President Peter Likins referred to as the enterprise model for universities. In an effort to push forward with this model, the regents gave some lucky colleges on campus the green light to move ahead with program fees to generate more money. Program fees, unlike tuition, go directly to the students' college and are not used by central administration to pay for debt service and general university operating costs.

The Eller College of Management was one of the only undergraduate programs to have a program fee of $500 approved by the regents. Those funds have been put to use so far for hiring faculty, which is exactly what students were promised. The School of Information Resources and Library Science also has been able to succeed in the midst of budget cuts because of program fees approved by the regents after it was nearly cut by top administrators.

And program fees are still being considered for other areas of campus. If you couldn't deduce it from the tuition survey, university administrators are considering a fee to improve technology resources across campus.

This technology fee is being considered regardless of the fact that when the regents approved the program fee for business undergraduates, it made a statement that it would not approve any others in the future.

"No más," said Regent Chris Herstam.

If business students, graduate students and computer centers can get financial boosts, then the regents need to revisit their anti-program fee stance. While the professional colleges and the business undergraduates are managing in these financially dark times, other colleges are not.

The College of Humanities is particularly stuck. While the College of Science and the College of Agriculture earn revenue off research grants won by faculty, grants received by those in the College of Humanities rarely come with money to cover operating costs. Furthermore, humanities college is not able to implement a program fee because the regents and administration aren't in favor of it.

One of the reasons the regents have given for not supporting undergraduate program fees is that they do not want students to choose a major based on how much it will cost them. But at the point some colleges are allowed to generate more revenue than others, the regents are allowing certain majors to get a better education than others.

They're essentially saying that a business education deserves more resources than a humanities education, or a business education is more valuable than a humanities education.

And they're saying that at the same time top administrators require every single person at the UA to take a language and a general education course in humanities. Why do they require this? Because it's valuable.

Perhaps it is naïve to call for program fees for language classes or for general education classes, the area in which humanities has the greatest need.

But no matter what the regents have said before, in this climate of decreased legislative funding, considering program fees for all colleges is necessary.

Two years ago then-vice provost for academic affairs Elizabeth Ervin said that even though regents stood against program fees for undergraduates, the issue might have to be revisited if the legislature continued to under-fund the university.

Well, the university is $13 million short of where it used to be, so it's time to reconsider.

In the absence of state funds, students have to start shouldering the cost of their education, and it's best to do it through program fees where the money goes straight to their major college.

Bring on the program fees; our education needs them.

Keren Raz is a senior majoring in English and political science. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.