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Engineering Resource Fees – Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Last Revised: October 2005
GENERAL QUESTIONS
- Why are engineering students required to pay a resource fee?
- With the recent increase in enrollment, the university is receiving more income from student tuition. Why can’t the fees be reduced or eliminated?
- The college is getting lots of money from research and from private donors – why do the students have to pay a resource fee?
- Do you use revenue from student fees to pay for new engineering buildings?
- The computer labs are already well equipped, and, I have my own laptop, why do I need to pay a much higher computer lab fee?
- Why can’t the college reduce some of the services and programs and reduce the amount of the resource fee?
- I’ve finished all my engineering coursework, why should I pay the fee?
- Why is the fee assessed for all courses taken, not just engineering courses?
- What are the consequences of my changing major to avoid the new fee?
- To save cost, why not remove the baccalaureate core requirement? I’m paying extra for these classes and they don’t contribute to my major.
- Can you project any additional increases in the future so we can plan for them?
- Why is the student fee distributed “across the board”? Couldn’t a fee differential be developed to charge more to students in more expensive programs?
QUESTIONS SPECIFIC TO GRADUATE STUDENTS
- I have an appointment as
a Graduate Research Assistant. Why can’t my appointment cover the
fees in the same way that it covers tuition?
- Why are graduate students assessed the same fee as undergraduates, we use different facilities and the faculty in my research group provide all the computers and lab equipment from their research grants?
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. Why are engineering students required to pay a resource fee?
Engineering degree programs are professional programs. They are more closely related to programs like Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine at OSU and Law at the University of Oregon than to programs in, for example, science or liberal arts. Engineering degree programs are more expensive due to faculty salaries, extensive laboratories, intensive coursework and accreditation. The Oregon University System fee book shows that several programs at the three major campuses charge resource fees. The OUS website has details of fee charges at the 7 public universities:
http://www.ous.edu/budget/
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2. With the recent increase in enrollment, the university is receiving more income from student tuition. Why can’t the fees be reduced or eliminated?
Because tuition does not cover the cost of a university education, particularly in programs such as engineering. The true cost is approximately double what in-state students pay. The state provides additional funds to make up this difference. Costs continue to increase, most recently due to salary and benefit cost increases, notably medical, dental and retirement costs. Because of the Oregon economy, the state subsidy has not kept up with cost increases. The result has been increased student tuition and fees.
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3. The college is getting lots of money from research and from private donors – why do the students have to pay a resource fee?
Most of our other sources of revenue cannot be used for support of general services and facilities used by students. Research funding has increased, but its use is restricted. However, many students gain some added value because of research projects. Undergraduates as well as graduate students are employed by research teams. Many undergraduates receive lab instruction in facilities that may have been fully or partially funded by research funds, and, we do receive funding to do educational research, e.g. a $1 million grant from the Hewlett foundation is funding development of wireless classrooms and other Platforms for Learning. We also receive some private funds that are unrestricted and we use some of that for supplementing academic programs. Restricted funds are usually directed to scholarships and fellowships, or to new or remodeled facilities. The Kelley Engineering Center is underway and is funded by the largest private gift ever received at OSU and state funding from bonds.
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4. Do you use revenue from student fees to pay for new engineering buildings?
No. Resource fees are directed to personnel costs, lab equipment and supplies related to instruction and providing students with services associated with these, such as advising.
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5. The computer labs are already well equipped, and, I have my own laptop, why do I need to pay a much higher computer lab fee?
The resource fee is not just for computer labs. However, prior to 2003, the majority of the fees were directed to operation and support of computer facilities. The computers in the labs are a relatively small part of this. Even if every student owned their own laptop, we need to provide all the other services including the network and servers. The demand for extra bandwidth and greater storage is still increasing rapidly and we are constantly upgrading.
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6. Why can’t the college reduce some of the services and programs and reduce the amount of the resource fee?
We have introduced several measures to reduce costs. The merger of 2 departments to form the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2003 enabled some savings – several faculty and staff positions were eliminated. Other departments have also delayed filling faculty positions following retirements or resignations. In addition, eleven faculty relinquished tenure (“retired”) during 2002/03 and some were not replaced. Note that the college has improved efficiency steadily in recent years – our total student enrollment has grown steadily from 1997 from about 2800 to 3800 students, while state general funds have been eroding. We are in the top 10 of all U.S. engineering programs in terms of undergraduate students/faculty members.
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7. I’ve finished all my engineering coursework, why should I pay the fee?
The resource fee is allocated on a program by program basis because of the specific cost of the overall program and not an individual cost. By being in a specific program, students have access to many other resources besides courses, such as advising, scholarships, internships, facilities (laboratories) and organizations. Students have access to these resources regardless of the number of engineering courses they are taking. If the costs were individualized by specific activity – courses, advising, lab use etc, it would be very complex.
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8. Why is the fee assessed for all courses taken, not just engineering courses?
All engineering students need to complete a specified mumber of credits to receive their degree and the fee is equitable for students who fit this model. The cost of providing degree programs is more than the cost of teaching classes. The fee covers many administrative costs not associated with courses. Example activities include advising, scholarships, internships, facilities and student organizations. Development of a fee for each activity would be very complex and would further add to our (and therefore student) cost.
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9. What are the consequences of my changing major to avoid the new fee?
Only students in engineering are allowed to register for engineering classes without an exception (normally as a result of an approved petition). While we have not yet established a formal policy, it is clearly not fair to have some students who are working toward an engineering degree avoid the fee while others are paying it.
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10. To save cost, why not remove the baccalaureate core requirement? I’m paying extra for these classes and they don’t contribute to my major.
General education is an important component of college. The majority of educators and employers tell us that engineering majors need an even broader education than they now receive to be effective in their careers. As a practical matter, accreditation requires a significant humanities and social science component as well as demonstrated ability in written and oral communication.
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11. Can you project any additional increases in the future so we can plan for them?
Regrettably, this is not possible. We would need to be able to predict the economy as well as what specifically will happen in the state of Oregon and all the factors that influence higher education funding. Note that the fees were not increased for this year. If an increase is necessary for 2005-06, it is unlikely to be more than 10%.
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12. Why is the student fee distributed “across the board”? Couldn’t a fee differential be developed to charge more to students in more expensive programs?
This is what is occurring with an engineering resource fee – engineering as a whole costs more than most non-engineering programs. Within engineering, it is not feasible to charge differential fees among the various engineering programs
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QUESTIONS SPECIFIC TO GRADUATE STUDENTS:
13. I have an appointment as a Graduate Research Assistant.
Why can’t my appointment cover the fees in the same way that it covers
tuition?
Most funding agencies will only cover the cost of tuition and not fees.
We recognize the need to have fees covered as well and we will look for ways
to address this for both research assistants and teaching assistants.
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14. Why are graduate students assessed the same fee as undergraduates,
we use different facilities and the faculty in my research group provide all
the computers and lab equipment from their research grants?
Engineering fees are related to services provided to students as well to
facilities such as computer labs. Many of the services provided for graduate students are the same as those
for undergraduates. However some are different, such as provision of office
or desk space.
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