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Show Tbe Daily Utah Chroaick, Monday, September 39 LETTERS IMS Page Twenty-on- e Special fee sets a bad precedentfor obtaining funds Editor. As we return to school, - find that, on top of the 9 percent tuition and fee tcrease that took effect this quarter, anoi.er 7 percent increase in tuition and fees (14 percent for graduate students) will tike effect just next quarter. This hike takes the form of a rew computer fee. This new fee will be the largest University of Utah susdtru have ever paid for a single item, as it will have undergraduate students pay half again the fees they currently pay, and have graduate students pay nearly double their current fees. As past student activists, we want to comment on this fee, and try to place it into perspective by recalling our own experiences working with the U. administration in the past. 1 Using student leaders to the exclusion of the students: The administration of the school has repeatedly shown it believes that, with the approval of ASUU, it does not need to include the rest of the students in the decision-makin- g process even in the critical area of setting our tuition and fees. With experience and tenure in office, ASUU leaders usually learn that it is best to open up important issues for public discussion. Unfortunately they are void so that their overall tuition and fees were the same as ever) one else's). The fact likely be out of the university by the time of the fees, did not become public education programs, even if it takes some that DCE students pay higher tuition than ever) one else, and that they do not pay all knowledge until 1983. This was some five years after the policy took effect. This is the case with this new fee as well: it was forced through ASUU, the Institutional Council and the Board of Regents so fast and in the deadest part of the school year when no one is on campus that the Chronicle didn't even have a chance to cover the issue. Don't bother to wake the kids and call the neighbors: the fat lady sang before the opera had even begun. 2 Going to students for funds before going to the Legislature: Of late, we have had a plethora of proposals for special fees, tuition surcharges, and the like. Looking at them alone, one would have no idea that the state has been in one of its most generous moods towards funding education in recent memory particularly at a time when many other states have been eviscerating their higher education systems. Although we still have difficulty with these other special tuition and fee hike proposals, at least they were attempted after first trying to obtain funds from the susceptible to the railroad treatment early in their term. This is unacceptable in any form of democracy, as at least the opportunity for open discussion must be assured. In a similar tuition and fees matter, back in 1978, no opportunity for discussion Legislature. Not so with this computer program. It is an idea we feel should have gone to the Hill first. 3 Special fees equal bad education students had certain fees exempted, and their tuition hiked (just enough to fill the inordinate benefits. For most programs (including this one), those who pay will occurred either. At that time DCE the system is fully operational. As a rule, the regular state budget process should be used to fund new prior planning. This brings us to a more practical point: Special fees are also to be avoided because the state has much deeper pockets than students. Only so much can, and should be funded through direct student participation (e.g. the current activity, building, recreation, athletic, and health fees). Special fees also let the Legislature off the hook of responsibility for funding higher education. Our education should be funded through the normal budget process, which includes setting our overall school fee (tuition) at a level which pays a responsible portion of our education (roughly 20 percent for residents). But a bad precedent has been set, and, as a result, the Legislature will increasingly expect student fees to pay for new programs, programs that they should be funding themselves. 4 The ambiguous standard by which the computer fee was imposed: The only reason we could find for this particular program being funded primarily with student fees was that the "benefits of the m policy: Generally speaking, it is poor policy to fund programs with special fees. They are inherently unfair. Certain students get nothing for their money while others get is a course that will 580R-1458R-1- something of a divide-and-conqu- er strategy of separating student groups for maximum financial effect. As mentioned above, we have already split off DCE students from the rest of the students so as to have them pay higher tuition than the rest of us. Now graduate students are being shaved off the student body as well, as they will pay $4 (instead of $2) per quarter hour for this program. Will special fees be levied on science students for new labs? On political science students for new classrooms? On performing arts students for new dance halls? Every effort needs to be made to stop this needless balkanization of students. Brian Hatch Public Affairs Board Chair, 1982-8- 3 Laurie Noda Public Affairs Board Chair, 1979-8- 0 Randy Horiuchi Public Affairs Board Chair, 1974-7- 5 HEWLETT PACKARD Get Involved With The Medical Innovation Of the Decade. . . And Earn Some Health Education Credit At The Same Time. Utah's Artificial Heart (Health Ed. program are worth the cost." Well, most of our educational infrastructure is worth the cost. Are special fees for faculty raises far behind?, for electricity?, for curb and gutter? Hyperbole aside, we do need justification for nailing students on this one. 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