With a proposed $464 increase in resident undergraduate tuition and the introduction of eight program fees, UA administrators are attempting to reduce the university's financial burden, but some colleges without program fees said they could also use the money.
Under President Peter Likins' tuition proposal, the Eller College of Management, College of Engineering, and College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture would receive additional funding from program fees.
But officials in other colleges who do not have program fees, such as humanities and social and behavioral sciences, said they also lack funding.
Larry Evers, head of the department of English, said with a program fee or direct revenue from tuition, the department could add new faculty, raise current faculty and staff salaries and reduce graduate assistant workloads.
"Funding for the department of English is poor," Evers said. "Lack of funds compromises our capacity to serve students and inhibits our goals to improve the national standing of the department's programs."
Program fees, also known as differential tuition surcharges, require students in particular colleges, such as the Eller College of Management which is slated for a $750 fee, to pay additional fees to cover expenses for that college.
However, colleges must meet a set of requirements before they can charge students a program fee, said Jerry Hogle, vice provost of instruction.
The program must be a professional program, have a markedly higher cost per student than the university average, demonstrate that students will benefit from the fee, and be a high income field, making it easier for students to pay back college expenses after graduation, Hogle said.
Juan Garcia, vice provost of academic affairs, said program fees go to central administration first and are later allocated to deans of colleges, who would work in conjunction with department heads to determine how the money would be spent.
Likins recommended adding a program fee of $300 to the College of Engineering and $500 to the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, but rejected the request for a program fee in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences for journalism because it did not meet the criteria, Hogle said.
Garcia said program fees would free up more central money to use for other colleges that do not qualify charging program fees to students.
In addition, 10 percent of the program fees are controlled by the Office of the Provost, who puts the money into a general operating pool, which could also go to fee-less colleges, Hogle said.
"There is a huge amount of demand for help from the provost," Hogle said. "It is true that all colleges are asking the provost for extra help, there isn't one that isn't."
While 10 percent of any program fee is controlled by central administration, 15 percent is set-aside for financial aid and the remaining 75 percent goes directly to the college dean.
However, William Dixon, political science department head, said the question of "does funding follow the students?" never seems to get answered.
Dixon said political science is growing in students while declining in faculty, but is not getting resources to hire more staff and increase course availability.
Garcia said central administrators are working hard to support the colleges who will not receive funding from program fees.
Ronald Marx, dean of the College of Education, said he will not ask for a program fee because he wants to keep costs low for his students, since a majority will enter already-underpaid fields of teaching, special education and counseling.
However, if their budget continues to decline, Marx said the College of Education would have to reduce adjunct faculty investments, which would mean cutting course sections.
"We have a world-class university, but we do not have world-class faculty and staff salaries, nor do we have a world class infrastructure," Marx said. "We continue to struggle as we figure out how to pay for this stature; program fees are part of the mix."
For certain programs, however, program fees are successful.
Ken Smith, interim dean of the Eller College of Management, said since a $500 fee was approved two years ago, they have been able to reduce class sizes, hire faculty and bolster the rankings of the college. Combined, these factors have made UA graduates more appealing to employers.
Tom Peterson, dean of the College of Engineering whose $300 fee request was included in Likins' proposal, said revenue would be used for expenses not seen in other colleges, such as equipment and purchasing new software.
At the same time, Peterson said money would also go to the faculty and course availability problem that plagues every department.