University System students to pay new fee

The state Board of Regents on Wednesday morning voted unanimously to levy new fees on students for the semester that begins in January.

The fees will raise about $20 million for Georgia’s University System, which is facing funding cuts from the state.

Students at Georgia’s research universities will be charged $100. At most of the state’s other four-year colleges and universities, the fee will be $75. Students at two-year colleges will pay $50.

The regents also voted to cut the employer share of two major University System workers’ health care plans from 75 percent to 70 percent.

Increased costs to employees in those plans will range from about $17 to about $65 a month.

Changes in health plan funding should save the University System about $8 million.

The regents also gave officials of University System institutions permission to defer a total of about $12 million in maintenance in order to avoid cutting their operating funds.

To impose the student fees, the regents had to waive a policy requiring student input on the collection and use of mandatory student fees.

Student body presidents of Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia opposed the waiver, saying it could set a precedent for shutting out students.

Most fees are decided at individual institutions. Assessment of fees by the University System circumvents the traditional process, the student leaders said in a joint statement.

“It amounts to a tuition supplement,” said Nick Wellkamp, Georgia Tech undergraduate student body president.

Regents cannot raise tuition because of a fixed-for-four policy that guarantees incoming freshmen the same tuition for four years. But unlike tuition, the new fee will not be covered by the HOPE scholarship for eligible students.

That could cause a hardship for some students, said Connor McCarthy, UGA student body president.

“Students are aware we’re in a serious financial time,” he said.

“In a fiscal emergency, problems with the pocketbook start at home.”

In mid-October, the regents approved 6 percent cuts in the current budgets at the state’s 35 public colleges and universities. Officials at each institution submitted individual plans for those cuts.

The new adjustments will be imposed systemwide and will help meet or offset an expected additional decrease of 2 percent in state funding.