The Tuition Committee unveiled the first draft of its proposal to increase UT Tyler students’ tuition and fees Wednesday in a presentation to student government.
According to Committee Co-Chair Laura Jackson, the proposal is the result of many hours of deliberation by a cross-functional team of students, staff and faculty who served on the committee, as well as the input of many UT Tyler community members.
The committee spoke to community members either through one-on-one conversations or email correspondence as a result announcements at campus town halls.
Jackson said the committee tried to make the proposal construction process as transparent as possible and that the current proposal is still only a draft.
“I want to make sure that everybody knows that this is a draft for one thing. We’re still in the input-gathering process,” she said.
“Secondly, I want to make sure that you do realize that we are an advisory committee to the president,” she said.
The proposal may change through University President Michael Tidwell’s intervention, The Board of Regents’s decision or input from UT System General Counsel (UT System lawyers who advise System on how to comply with state law in pursuit of their goals).
“Even when we have our finalized proposal, we’ll submit it to the president but it’s up to the president’s discretion as far as what he takes to the Regents,” she added.
“So the Regents are the ones who make the final decision,” she said.
THE PROPOSAL
The draft proposal calls for changes in the structure of UT Tyler’s mandatory fees, changes in the fees that students at the Houston Engineering Center pay and the addition of special tuition prices for high demand colleges such as those in the Colleges of Business and Technology, Engineering, and Nursing and Health Sciences.
The proposal includes an increase to the Medical Services Fee from $35 to $38 per semester, an increase to Student Services Fee from $11 to $13 per semester credit hour, an increase to the Intercollegiate Athletics Fee from $12 to $16 per semester credit hour, a new Student Success Fee of $100 per semester, a new $175 Houston Engineering Center Fee for Houston students (along with waivers to Tyler-specific fees), an increase to the Basic Computer Access Fee (Technology Fee) from $125 to $150 per semester, a $20 per semester credit hour addition in tuition for students of the Colleges of Business and Technology, Engineering and Nursing and Health Sciences.
Overall, Jackson said the proposal represents a 12 percent increase to students’ net price of tuition and fees, phased in at six percent over two years, both for resident and nonresident students, undergraduate and graduate.
Jackson: Draft Proposal = 6 percent increase to total tuition phased in over two-years, from $3,911 to $4,395. #TuitionUTT pic.twitter.com/ViN6r0mWOT
— James Hescock (@JHescock) November 16, 2017
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The 12 percent does not include the differential tuition rates for the aforementioned colleges.
“We want to make sure everybody knows that it is not kind of standard operating procedure, that for this six percent, you’re going to be getting a lot more investment, a lot more services, directly benefiting the students and servicing the needs that you have identified throughout this process,” Jackson told student government.
“As we were developing this proposal, we were really taking to heart those principles that we mentioned earlier: access and affordability,” she said.
TUITION INCREASE
Jackson said total net price of tuition and fees would increase six percent over the next two years, but thought that providing the details of tuition would prove too timely during her presentation to student government.
“Those details are available, but that would be getting really in the weeds and I didn’t want to take up the time, but we can definitely share that for anybody who’s interested,” she said.
Jackson cited yearly record-breaking enrollment as a driver for University’s need for more funding as well as cuts to UT Tyler’s Special Items budget in state appropriations, increased full-time employees and the strategic investments the University has undertaken to keep up with rising enrollment.
“So all of that investments, buildings and services–it’s not just personnel–shows that we have been making strategic investments, but it has lead us into a deficit in our spending,” she said.
On average, UT Tyler has operated in a $5.4 million deficit since over the past four fiscal years, according to university annual operating budgets.
“So clearly we have some decisions to make. You can’t stay under that white line for forever,” she said.
Jackson said Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Texas makes it unlikely that UT Tyler will receive increased funding in the coming years given Harvey’s draw on state funds.
“So we have to think about how are we going to address this financial situation when the state’s cutting us and not going to restore that funding. You know, so how do we want to approach that?” she said.
The committee used the six percent cut to Special Items Budget as a standard for its yearly six percent increase adjustments to tuition and fees, she said.
“When we talk about that Responsibility and Shared Benefits” (a guiding principle provided by University of Texas System for recommending a tuition increase) “our cut from the state was roughly six percent. And so the committee talked about just sort of a six percent adjustment to tuition that kind of reflects that,” she said.
DIFFERENTIAL TUITION
The proposal also calls for an added tuition price of $20 per semester credit hour for students in the Colleges of Business and Technology, Engineering and Nursing and Health Sciences.
Jackson stated that the costs to the University vary depending on a student’s major, citing the differences in cost to education a political science major versus an accounting major.
“We’ve identified some of the programs here at the University that are a little bit more expensive to deliver. This way, we can funnel those funds to those programs to make sure that they maintain their high quality,” she said.
“The good news is that the students who are in these programs generally–unlike like for me as a political scientist, I think my first job out of college was something like $32,000 a year or something like that–but for a CPA you’re going to get in the six figures probably very soon after you graduate,” she said.
“So there is a return on that investment that there may not be in some of the majors that are going to be within this differential tuition rate program,” she said.
According to Jackson, the differential tuition will be based on the classes in the college rather than by major. “If you wanted to keep things manageable, you could decide when to take the course,” she said in a separate interview Friday.
NEW STUDENT SUCCESS FEE
The proposal includes a new mandatory Student Success Fee of $100 per semester to fund a strategic priority in the new institutional plan: Student Success.
This proposed fee will support establishing a Career Placement Office in each College, mentoring programs, promote on-time graduation rates, help students obtain jobs after college and other initiatives.
Jackson proposes new Student Success Fee of $100 per semester. Cites fee will help fuel UT Tyler’s new strategic plan (which emphasizes student success). #StudentFeesUTT pic.twitter.com/RJNIG2bJIp
— James Hescock (@JHescock) November 16, 2017
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“At the same time that the tuition proposal goes to the Board of Regents in February, the UT Tyler strategic plan is going to go to the Board of Regents,” she said.
“So the initiatives that are included in that strategic plan, should they be approved by The Board of Regents, those will be the initiatives that will be funded with this new Student Success Fee,” she said.
Jackson indicated that students may not have an opportunity to vote on this fee since she foresees this fee under what is called incidental fees, which do not require a student vote. “However, [this] may change” if General Counsel advises otherwise, she said.
ATHLETICS FEE INCREASE
The proposal contains a four dollar increase to the Intercollegiate Athletics Fee from $12 per semester credit hour to $16 per semester credit hour per student.
“The return on investment that students get from the Athletics fee–and we’ve talked about this a ton over the course of the weeks and months leading up to this, but–we have a great athletics program to begin with,” she said.
“Invest more in it then the Athletics program becomes more highly visible, more successful and honestly that increases the value of your degree,” she told student government.
“You’re more likely to get that job if you will kind of recognize the institution you came from even if it’s because of the softball championship,” she said.
If approved by the Board of Regents, students must approve of this increase in a student election before the increase can take effect, according to state law.
MEDICAL SERVICES FEE INCREASE
The draft proposal also includes an increase to the Medical Services Fee, from $35 per semester to $38 per semester to invest in mental health services, Jackson said.
“In the second town hall that we had was the increasing amount of mental health services. We have an increased demand for it that goes along with an increased price tag for it,” she said.
According to Jackson, the increase to the Medical Services Fee will allow UT Tyler to provide more funding to its Counseling Center, which receives funding from The Student Services fee.
“So by putting more on the Medical Services Fee, again, we create a little bit more flexibility for those funds that are in the Student Services Fee account,” she said.
Jackson said she did not believe this increase requires a student vote. The Bell Tower Press is unclear about the statute’s language. (Here is the statute.)
TECHNOLOGY FEE
The proposal includes an increase to The Basic Computer Access Fee that, according to Jackson, was recently renamed to the Technology Fee. The proposal calls for an increase from $125 per semester to $150 per semester to provide for technology needs.
“That is something that almost universally we hear from students. There is something that called a Basic Computer Access Fee that has actually already been named the Technology fee–that just happened in the last couple of weeks–so that it’s more clear what those funds go to or what they do go to,” she said.
Jackson said the fee will dedicate funding to technology because “that’s something that students are telling us that you want investment in.”
STUDENT SERVICES FEE
The draft proposal also includes an increase in the semester credit hour rate of The Student Services Fee from $11 to $13 per semester credit hour. The $150 maximum remains the untouched.
“The groups that are funded by this Student Services Fee, a lot of people on campus have a vested interest in having a greater amount to invest in them,” she said.
“It’s sort of a dual effort: one is to create more opportunity for investment in those groups on campus and the other is to encourage students to take more than 12 semester credit hours,” Jackson said.
Increasing the rate from 11 to 13 semester credit hours helps students graduate in a timely manner, Jackson said, which is a key University initiative.
Moreover, students receive a cost savings for enrolling in over 12 semester credit hours, she said. “So you hit $150 at 12 semester credit hours. Everything after that is free from the Student Services Fee perspective,” she said.
Jacksons said students get the benefit of added transparency with the fee since students sit on The Student Fee Advisory Committee, which oversees the Student Services Fee budget.
“This is going to increase transparency in addition because that Student Services Fee, you have a whole committee that makes recommendations to the President on how to spend that money and that committee has students on it,” she said.
“So, by adjusting this fee, we give students another opportunity to direct where that money can go. And it adds flexibility because if there’s something that’s not going on right now that you want going on next year, then you can take it to that committee and say, ‘I want to get this funding,’” she said.
“So it adds a little more flexibility to that funding by having it connected to that cost center,” she said.
HOUSTON ENGINEERING CENTER FEE
The draft proposal contains something special for Houston Engineering Center students: waivers for the Tyler-specific Fine and Performing Arts, Recreational Facility and Student Union fees.
Instead the same net amount of these fees returns to the Houston campus as the Houston Engineering Center Fee, roughly $175.
“So in order for Houston students to benefit the most from tuition and fees that they pay, we’re creating a separate account with a Houston Engineering Center Fee. All of those funds will go directly to benefit the students at the Houston Engineering Center,” she said.
“Then they will not pay the Cowen Center Fee, the Recreational Facility Fee or the Student Union Fee because, quite honestly, they’re just not going to be able to drive in four hours to go to a movie on the lawn or to come to Homecoming and the Chili Cookoff,” she said.
Jackson said the committee thought hard about providing the same waivers to Longview and Palestine students, but decide to wait and see how this initiatives goes with Houston.
Longview and Palestine are a little more difficult to track, she said, since some students who pay those fees do travel to the Tyler campus.
“If they showed up to go to a Cowen Center show and we said, ‘Sorry! You’re Palestine. You don’t get to come to this show,’ there just might be a lot of confusion there,” she said.
Jackson said waivers for Longview and Palestine may be an option a future tuition committee decides to pursue after future state legislative sessions.
INCREASE TO SCHOLARSHIPS
The draft proposal will also include increases in campus scholarships, according to Tuition Committee Co-Chair and Vice President of Business Affairs William O’Donnell who addressed student government, as well.
“One thing I’m not sure was completely done in the past was if there was a tuition increase, I don’t think that they were increasing the scholarship budget, other than the set-asides.” he said.
“The President recognized and I realized that we need to really infuse much more money into the campus scholarship program, because that’s more discretionary scholarships” and they provide more flexibility, he said.
“The set-asides have particular restrictions,” he said. “The campus scholarships can be used however we want.”
“That gives us the opportunity to match up, along with the Financial Aid Office, where students got financial aid and where they have a shortfall between their financial need and the resources they got,” he said.
“We can come in with campus scholarships, which are again purely discretionary, and close that gap. So that’s what we’re trying to do with the infusion of scholarship money. We just need more money there,” he said.
AFFORDABILITY
Jackson said that after these proposed adjustments, UT Tyler is still below the state average in cost of education.
“And even after the adjustments that we’re talking about, we’re still going to be below the state average,” she said. “Almost anything that you can pull, UT Tyler is highly competitive with the other institutions in the state.”
“So that is something that the committee was very sensitive to. We wanted to make sure that we were not going to price anybody out of higher education, and specifically a UT Tyler degree,” she said.
FINAL PROPOSAL DUE DEC. 4
The Tuition Committee must submit its final proposal to The Board of Regents by Dec. 4.
Prior this time, the Committee will presents its draft proposal to the campus community in multiple forums, such as campus-wide town halls on Thursday and Friday, the Faculty Senate on Thursday.
The committee remains open to receive feedback from the campus community at LauraJackson@uttyler.edu until it submits its final proposal to the Regents.
“This process I hope has been–not only this process, but also the proposal afterwards–I hope will be very transparent. We want to receive input. We want to let you know kind of what we were thinking as we develop this and get your ideas,” she said.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Vice President Savannah Seely moved to endorse the draft tuition proposal that night, but after discussion, SGA moved to table the motion until its members could get more feedback from students. Parliamentarian Katie Hicken made the motion to table.
Watch the presentation here:
*Disclosure: The author of this article presented a proposal about student fees for the Tuition Committee to consider on Nov. 3, 2017.
*Editor’s Note: a previous version of this article stated that the tuition proposal included a 19.6 percent increase due to differential tuition. The article was corrected after clarification from Laura Jackson.
Twitter: @jhescock
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