Budget Office Web site expands to include student fees

The Missouri Students Association passed the bill Nov. 5.

By Joey Soto

Published Dec. 11, 2008

Students will soon be able to view a user-friendly breakdown of what exactly the student activities fee comprises.

The Missouri Students Association Senate passed legislation on Nov. 5 that called for expansion of the MU tuition link on the MU Budget Office Web site to include student fees. This bill supplements earlier legislation that set up the structure for putting information about tuition on the MU budget Web site.

MU Budget Director Tim Rooney said this was the next step in the MSA's transparency objective.

"This year some student leaders wanted to expand it to the fees that students also pay, so it's just an extension and expansion of what we already did," Rooney said. "We're more than happy to if it helps students and gets information out there."

Student Affairs Fiscal Officer Rich Anderson stressed that these fees have been available for years but in a different format. The legislation passed most recently will transfer that information in a more straightforward format, Anderson said.

The logic for providing the student fees information on the MU tuition Web site is intended to make the breakdown more convenient for student access, Anderson said.

MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays met with MSA President Jim Kelley, Anderson and Rooney shortly after the bill was passed to form a plan of action. 

Shortly after their meeting, Anderson began writing descriptions about what each of the student fees entails. The only piece missing is the information about integrated technology, which Rooney said he does not expect to make the process any more difficult.

"Once they give us that narrative, it's pretty easy to put it on our Web site with a link to the actual fees and we'll update those on a yearly basis upon change," Rooney said.

Anderson said he expects there to be few obstacles in adding the information about the breakdown of student fees to the tuition Web site after the numbers have been organized.

Mays said he does not think students should have to jump through hoops to see where their money is going.

"We don't think you should have to engage in detective work to look into our fees," Mays said.

This sort of simple extension should make students more aware of where their money is going so they are more able to make informed decisions, Mays said.

Supplementing Mays' comments, Rooney said putting all the information in one place might make it easier for students to access.

"It's just good information for them to have, and I suspect that students were worried that other students wouldn't know to look there (Cashier's Office) and that a budget Web site might be a place students would go to look."

The process of gathering and placing updated information about student fees online is still ongoing. After MU officials put the numbers together, MSA Academic and Student Affairs committee will review the information for clarity.

Once the information is approved and placed online, it will be publicized via a mass e-mail in the MSA monthly update.