BOT okays fall fee increase

Students can expect to pay more in campus housing, parking and fees next year, according to UCF officials.

On March 18 the UCF Board of Trustees announced a set of fee increases that would go into effect next fall. The extra revenue would cover the cost of roof and air-conditioning replacements, along with installing more security cameras on campus.

Parking will increase with student decals going up to $94, a $6 increase from this year. Faculty will have to fork over an additional $21 for decals. They currently pay $296.

Other increased fees will include athletic, health and transportation-access fees. A student taking 30 credit hours next school year will pay a total of about $960 for these three fees.  This would be a $40 dollar increase for a student taking 30 credit hours.

Housing fees will increase depending on where the student lives. It could go up anywhere from $30 to $95.

Thomas Hellinger, chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee in the Student Government Association, thinks that these increases are coming at a bad time.

"This is only the beginning of a series of proposals to make it more difficult for Floridians to get an affordable and necessary college education," he said. "The $3.3 billon cuts being proposed for K-20 in this state, in addition to the measures to lower Pell Grant and Bright Futures scholarships, are going to make it more difficult for Florida to recover economically as it is going to be increasingly starved of educated workers."

The GAC committee views local, state, and federal laws and legislation that directly affect the student body at UCF.

Although the BOT has approved these increases, the Florida Board of Governors still has to approve them. The BOG oversees the state university system and they will be making the decision over the summer.

If these fees are approved, students will be paying more per credit hour.  Students currently pay $146.69 before the differential tuition and technology fee. After these fees they pay $167. 35.

Grant Heston, assistant vice president of UCF News & Information, said that students were directly involved with the process of approving the fees at the university level.

"These changes were made in the best interest of UCF students," he said. "When you look at the cost of tuition and fees at other universities outside of Florida, we are still an inexpensive place to go to school."

Matthew McCann, the incoming SGA president and former chair of the University Fee Committee, believes these increases will benefit the student body as a whole and will help with student growth.

"This year's fee increases are the lowest they have been for students in at least the past five years," he said. "Members of the University Fee Assessment Committee and I listened to proposals from different campus entities asking for fee increases which better help each department cater to the growing amount of students and their needs campus wide."

"We hope to continue this progress in the future, saving students money, while not neglecting the needs of a growing and premier university," McCann said.