UM system campuses given option to set IT fees
The fee will no longer increase with tuition.
Published Aug. 24, 2010
The decoupling of tuition on each UM system campus was accompanied by the option for each campus to recommend the amount of its Information Technology Fee. The move means the four campuses will no longer have their IT fee rate set at the UM system level.
"As of last year, it was the only student fee that was set at the system level," Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce said. "MU's IT budget has had a great deal of carryover in the last few years - in the current fee system because of how big our school is - so what we wanted to do is look at how we could solve the problem. The source of the issue is that we did not determine our own fee."
Traditionally, the IT fee has increased at the same percentage as the tuition increase for a given year, said Gary Allen, Division of IT Chief Information Officer.
"When they decoupled the tuition, they also decoupled all of the fees that had been tied to tuition," Allen said. "The campuses were ultimately given the authority to make judgments on how they ought to deal with both the tuition and IT fee."
This year, the IT fee is $12.20 per student. In fiscal year 2009, DoIT had around $1 million in carryover, said Matt Sheppard, vice president of the Student Fee Review Committee. SFRC meets for the first time this year Tuesday and will discuss its recommendation for the IT fee's increase or decrease. He said it plans to meet with DoIT sometime this semester.
"This is a very good thing for MU students," Sheppard said. "For the first time, the SFRC will get to meet with the IT department and actually discuss what the fee should be for MU's campus since it's no longer tied to any of the other ones. Basically, our program spends significantly more than the other system campuses, and now that we get to be in charge of our own fee, it should result in a lower fee campus wide."
Graduate Professional Council President Kristofferson Culmer said the department has planned to incorporate the carryover into the following year's budget.
"A couple of years ago the Division of IT acknowledged to the SFRC that the IT fee generated income at a faster rate than they were spending but they had no control over the fee because it was set at the system level," Culmer said. "It will be interesting to see what happens this year. The system has always been really good at listening to student opinions, so I don't foresee any problems."
Although he acknowledged that the actual agreement has not happened yet, Allen said there is now a way for each of the system campuses to determine how to adjust tuition increases. He said the same goes for the IT fee.
Noce is optimistic of the prospects the decoupling has in store.
"I think that at the end of the day it's going to save students money," Noce said. "It's going to make sure that all of the student dollars go exactly to what students need."
A longtime proponent of the decoupling, Noce said legislation concerning the subject was prevalent last year.
"Apparently, after a lot of response from students, myself and MSA, the idea took hold and changes will go forth next fiscal year," Noce said. "It was one of my goals when I became president. I think at the end of the day it's going to make the students realize how much of their money is actually going toward things like IT and how important the student voice is in fee decisions."
Allen said this will be a part of the overall discussion at the system level in the spring, when each campus will bring recommendations on how they plan to set fees during the budget planning process for the 2011-12 academic year.
"The same flexibility is there for how the IT fee will be handled," Allen said. "Each campus will be able to make recommendations on how it wants to adjust the IT fee for students completely independent of each other."