THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9, 2000
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9,2009
NEWS
3A
CAMPUS
Students feel strain of steady increase in course fees
BY ALY VAN DYKE
avandyke@kansan.com
In his three and a half years as an undergraduate, Bob Scalise, Olathe senior, has taken 62 credits from the School of Business.
Because of those credits, Scalise has had to pay about $5,440 in course fees alone — in addition to his tuition each semester.
Formerly known as differential tuition, the additional charge students pay per credit hour helps fund new faculty, scholarships, technology and other equipment at the students' respective schools. The Kansas Board of Regents has approved an annual 6 percent fee increase for each school. The annual fee increase has been approved through the 2012-13 school year.
Student consent is required by the Regents to initiate course fees and for any fee increase beyond the annual adjustment. Otherwise, students aren't consulted.
"I think the students should have a lot more say in it." Scalise said. "We're in a recession and they keep jacking stuff up. We're getting a pretty bad deal, I think."
The Board of Regents approved the first course fees for the 2003-04 school year. Five of the 10 schools that now have course fees implemented the additional charge in the first year.
When the School of Business first initiated its course fee of $75 per credit in 2004, 10 student organizations submitted letters of
Keith Chauvin, associate dean of academic affairs with the School of Business, said the course fees were approved to offer more majors at the school.
support to the Kansas Board of Regents.
"The School of Business has always been really small compared to most schools of business," he said. "Both students and recruiters have been urging the school to consider having traditional majors."
He said the money from the course fees created majors in
"We're in a recession and they keep jacking stuff up. We're getting a pretty bad deal, I think."
Graphic by Nick Gerik/KANSAN
BOB SCALISE Olathe senior
the fees also go toward scholar ships and student support.
were decided, let alone who made the decision.
Chauvin said
"The administration don't really tell us anything about that kind of stuff," he said. "All I know is that the fees keep going up."
But the course fee initiation for the School of Business was five years ago; for some other schools, it's been six. Yet prices continue to rise annually — often without student input.
Course fees are charged to students per credit hour in addition to tuition and vary by school. The Kansas Board of Regents has approved an annual 6 percent increase in course fees for each school, but student consent is required to initiate course fees or increase them beyond the annual rate.
The course fee per credit in the School of Business is $96.60. For students earning master's degrees in business, it's $176.15 per credit hour. According to the KU Budget Office, the fees brought in more than $3 million this semester alone. That is $2 million more than the next highest revenue collected by
Scalise is the Tax Club representative for the Undergraduate Business Council, which was one of the 10 student leadership groups to approve the School of Business fees in 2004. However, he said he had no idea how the course fees
a school from course fees.
The School of Business has one of the highest fees among the various schools. It ranks third behind Pharm D course fees at the Edwards Campus, which are $148.65 per credit hour, and the Law courses which
are $199.55 per credit hour. Pharm D is a program designed to help practicing pharmacists enhance their skills and education.
Alex Herman, Hays law student, will graduate with a law degree this month. He has taken 92 law credits in his three years in the Law School, adding up to more than $16,000 in course fees during his time as a law student. This is in addition to tuition calculations.
When Herman started law school at the University, per credit fees for law courses were $154. He's
paying $199.55 for each of his 13 credits this semester, which added about $2,600 to his tuition. He said he paid for his tuition and fees through student loans.
Despite his hefty investment, Herman said he didn't know much about the course fees charged by the Law School.
"I know that it adds a significant amount to how much I pay in tuition every year," he said.
Herman said he thought the Law School was aware of the fact that students didn't have a lot of extra cash.
The latest proposed course fees for the Law School would reach $233.15 per credit in fall of 2012.
at the same time trying to keep costs down for students," he said.
"I trust the Law School is doing what they need to do open but open
— Edited by Samantha Foster
NATIONAL
in this Jan. 29 file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagiojev talks to the media outside of his Chicago home after being removed from office. Federal prosecutors had long been investigating whether the governor had used his official powers illegally.
Former governor's effects still felt
BY CHRISTOPHER WILLS
Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — When the news arrived, Rep. Bill Black thought at first it was somebody's lame idea of a joke. But it was true: The FBI had arrested the governor of Illinois, hauling him away wearing a track suit and handcuffs.
"I thought, holy mackerel, another glorious day for Illinois government," said Black, a Danville Republican.
The arrest of Rod Blagojevich took place a year ago Wednesday. Since then it's been one "holy mackerel" moment after another, some amusingly bizarre and some deadly serious.
The Chicago Democrat was impeached and removed from office. He denied wrongdoing in a strange media blitz, becoming a national joke in the process. A close political ally committed suicide. He dispatched his wife to eat bugs on a reality TV show. He defied pretty much everyone by filling a vacant Senate seat.
Blagojevich even became, at least for one afternoon, an Elvis impersonator.
governor's office, and they could be helped if Blagojevich stays in the spotlight with a role on "Celebrity Apprentice" next year and a federal trial during election season.
His legacy will also be felt in a major overhaul of Illinois ethics laws, including the first-ever caps on the size of campaign donations. New Gov. Pat Quinn plans to sign the legislation on the anniversary of Blagojevich's arrest as part of a Democratic effort to regain voters' trust.
And the show isn't over yet.
The scandal could have a national impact by tipping a U.S. Senate seat — the one previously held by President Barack Obama — into Republican hands. The GOP also hopes to reclaim the
Blagoevich's arrest on Dec. 9,
2008, didn't come out of the blue.
But for many, it was still shocking to think of the FBI showing up at a governor's door and taking him away in handcuffs.
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Run by the University, Audio Reader usually reads daily newspaper, magazine and books into a microphone on special radio subcarriers for visually impaired KU students. But the volunteers undertook an additional task of reading a whole set of course textbooks for a student at the Massage Therapy Training Institute, a health and wellness school in Lawrence.
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Jennifer Nigro, volunteer coordinator for Kansas Audio Reader, said it was a task that involved dozens of books.
From the course syllabus to material on the final, Kansas Audio Reader volunteers read aloud all of the texts of the courses for a visually impaired area vocational school student. This is the first time volunteers have ever read all of the required readings for a student with multiple courses, and, not to mention, deadlines.
"This is the first time that we were responsible for an entire course," Nigro said.
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Last week, MTTI awarded its first Academic Partner of the Year award to Audio Reader for the volunteers'
Kansas Audio Reader takes on the daily college grind
BY JESSE RANGEL jrangel@kansan.com
Nigro said this experience has better prepared the service for the future.
"Our goal is to provide information that's needed." Nigro said. "If someone were to come to us again and say, 'I need help getting through this course,' we would be more than happy to take that on. Now that we've done it once, we can say 'Yes, we can handle something like that.'"
titioner would be standing," Taylor said. "There would be page after page of drawings."
Gehringer said the school picked Audio Reader because it was more convenient for the student to pick up the audio CDs in a timely manner to listen to them, would be in town and the school could to pick up CDs to meet course deadlines, and because the service, run by volunteers, was free.
JUDY TAYLOR Volunteer
"I had to describe the placement of the hands and how the body was lying on the table, where the prac-
"I had to describe the placement of the hands and how the body was lying on the table ..."
Nigro said the volunteers worked together to get readings done, because they were under the unique situation of having multiple course deadlines. She said she assigned multiple readers to one book.
massage therapy and physiology for the course. She said she not only read text, but described pictures and graphics on the pages.
Edited by Jacob Muselmann
would've been really hard to do."
work from January through October.
"We were just trying to find as many options as we could." Gehringer said. "If Audio Reader wouldn't have been an option, we probably would've ended up just trying to tape everything, which
Rachael Gehringer, director of MTTI's Lawrence campus, said she knew the school had to find a partner to read books for a visually impaired student during the admissions process.
Judy Taylor, volunteer for Audio Reader, said she read books on
"With that came a lot of coordination in just keeping track of who's accomplished what, and who needs to pick up where," Nigro said.
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GSP Dining 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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