Board of Regents raises student fee

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Georgia's college students start their next semester, they'll get hit with a higher tab for fees.

The state Board of Regents voted unanimously Tuesday to double a special mandatory fee starting in January, effectively raising students' out-of-pocket costs for the second time in as many years.

The regents instituted the fee last January as the economy tanked and the state cut funding to Georgia's University System. At the time, it cost students up to $100 per semester depending on which campus they attend.

With Tuesday's action, students at Georgia's research universities, such as the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, as well as Georgia Southern, Valdosta State, Georgia College and State, Kennesaw State, Southern Polytechnic and the University of West Georgia will now be charged $200 each semester. At most of the state's other four-year colleges and universities, the fee will be $150. Students at two-year colleges will pay $100.

The fee will be in effect until June 2012. The regents also set a one-year moratorium on other student fee increases except under special circumstances, although that did not seem to make the decision any easier for some of the system's 302,000 students who have to hand over the money.

Katie Barlow, who attends the University of Georgia and is president of its student government association, said the increased fee, unlike a tuition increase, is not typically covered by financial aid such as the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship program and for the most part comes directly out of students' pockets. That makes it a tough sell, particularly since it's a top-down decision.

"All students understand the budget cuts because we're feeling it at home, too," Barlow said. "It's just that it's our money, so we want to have a voice in the discussion."

The state this fiscal year has already cut about $135 million from the system's nearly $2.08 billion budget as Georgia suffers from a historic decline in revenue. For the system, those cuts include mandatory furloughs for nearly all employees. Individual institutions also laid off workers, eliminated course sections and increased class sizes. Other systemwide cost-cutting moves include major health insurance changes, shifting the costs to employees by 20 percent.

Still. starting early next year, University System officials said the state has warned them of plans to cut an additional $41 million out of the higher education budget, bringing total funding cuts to $176 million. The fee increase will make up about $24 million of that additional $41 million.

The balance will have to come from additional cuts at each of the system's 35 public colleges and universities. While those cuts are not yet set, they may include more employee furloughs, program cuts and even more layoffs.

Usha Ramachandran, the system's vice chancellor for fiscal affairs, said officials decided on the fee increase "only as an action of last resort." As a whole, she said, employees and institutions have borne the brunt of the cuts as officials have sought to insulate the student experience as much as possible.

Regents up until April could not raise tuition because of a fixed-for-four policy that guaranteed incoming freshmen the same tuition cost for four years. They ended the policy then, but have honored that price for those students who enrolled while the policy was in effect. That decision in a sense has tied officials' hands now as they struggle to balance their books equitably, although it seems likely officials will look at tuition increases down the road as those students graduate out of the system.