Plan would increase fees
Increase in comprehensive fee would fund technology, parking

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The comprehensive student fee would increase $30 a semester for full-time undergraduates—raising it to $655 beginning with the Fall 2002 semester—under a proposal by Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs.

The fee would increase $17.50 per semester for full-time graduate and professional students under the proposal, bringing it to $487.50 for the semester.

The proposed increase would support negotiated salary/benefit increases in fee-supported areas due to statewide contract settlements not provided for in UB's base budget. It also would support increased technology costs and services, improved parking and transportation services, and improvements to services provided to students with disabilities, as well as contribute to enhanced athletic and recreational programming.

Fees would continue to be prorated on a credit-hour basis for part-time students and the current waiver policy will be maintained. Individual student government mandatory activity fees would continue to be assessed, in addition to the comprehensive fee.

The proposed per-semester increase includes $.75 for campus life, $5 for technology, $6.75 for parking/transportation, $5 for health services and $12.50 for intercollegiate athletics—assessed to undergraduates only.

The governor's proposed budget that will take effect July 1 does not provide funding for SUNY to meet negotiated salary increases and does not include at this time a general tuition increase, Black said. However, the university must continue to invest in programs and services essential to delivering high-quality educational experiences while supporting the increased costs of ongoing services and programs.

"UB remains committed to providing an educational environment fostering student development and student success," he said. "To do this, additional fee revenues for next year have been proposed through a modest increase to the student comprehensive fee at a rate only equivalent to higher education inflation."

The campus life increase would support negotiated salary/benefit increases due to statewide contract settlements.

The fee increase for technology would support the cost of the anti-virus software that is supplied to all students, the campus license agreement for the Microsoft Office software that is provided to each student and the distribution of the Tech Tools CD, which includes anti-virus, Web, email, utilities, courseware and readers and viewer software, to all students. In addition, it would fund the deployment across the campuses of several wireless pilots to increase access to the campus backbone and the purchase of additional computers for the computing labs and the cybraries on both campuses.

The parking/transportation increase would be used for a number of items, among them restriping accessible parking spaces to comply with American with Disabilities Act standards, installing new and enhanced bus shelters at key locations on both campuses, and funding contractual increases and debt retirement. In addition, revenue from the increased fee would fund a parking/transportation orientation video for incoming freshmen, and also may pay for an additional parking lot near the Ellicott Complex and to implement the results of the current study of parking and transportation issues on the two campuses.

The health services increase would pay for costs related to negotiated statewide salary and benefit contract settlements, as well as enhancements and expansion of services to students with disabilities. Among them are an expansion to Disability Services to provide space, equipment and software in support of 18 new testing and computer-access stations, and the purchase of a braille printer.

The intercollegiate athletics increase—assessed to undergraduates only—would support expansion for women's varsity sports to bring them on par with the men's sports. It also would pay for inflationary costs associated with team travel, student recruiting, and administrative support, and student payroll within Recreation and Intramural Services. In addition, it would support the purchase of new equipment for the fitness center.

Comprehensive fee adjustments, if adopted, would be reflected in student account statements distributed to all returning and new students in mid-July, Black said. "While slightly increasing the cost of student attendance, UB would remain one of the nation's best buys in higher education and will continue to be a major public university and the premier public institution in the Northeast," he said.

He noted that final comprehensive fee recommendations for 2002-03 will be made after student consultation. Open forums soliciting student input on the fee increase were held Monday and yesterday. Students also can comment via email to compfee@vpsa.buffalo.edu through March 13.

More information on the comprehensive fee, the proposed increases, and the waiver process, is available at www.compfee.buffalo.edu.

Black pointed out that recommendations for wider campus consultation that were developed last year by Barbara Ricotta, dean of students, and representatives from the Council of Student Government Presidents have been adopted. The university's new fee policies and procedures require UB to complete its comprehensive fee process much earlier in the year than it had in the past, he said, adding that the current student consultation process also is based on recommendations developed by the SUNY system.