Some students are calling for the university to reduce the cost of mandatory student fees and tuition, citing they face financial hardship, cannot use all the university’s services and will not get the same quality of education.
The Student Services Fee charges $12.41 per credit hour, equaling out to $186.15 for students taking 15 hours of courses.
During summer 2020 class sessions, the university waived the Athletic Fee, Medical Service Fee, Recreational Facility Fee, Student Union Fee and the Transportation Fee.
Assistant Director of Reputation Management Leigh Anne Gullett said she was told “[t]he university’s tuition and fee structure will remain the same” but is waiting for additional details in regards to students being charged for canceled programs.
Marketing senior Bita Motiie said she thinks the university should reduce tuition costs since students “will not be able to receive our money’s worth of education in which we are entering into thousands of dollars of debt for.”
Motiie is taking summer classes online and said she has experienced many issues with their delivery.
“My professors are met with almost daily technical issues,” Motiie said. “[There is] no proper formatting of online classwork and it’s like a whole lack of communication on how to even educate us. There are not enough online tools or education for faculty for them to properly teach online. We are literally only learning from an overpriced textbook at this point.”
Computer engineering senior Micah Warren said he is also concerned about fall courses and believes the university should reduce tuition and fees.
“No matter how much you say the online classes are going to be the same quality as in-person classes, it’ll never be true,” Warren said. “Sitting in a classroom instead of some room in your house makes a massive difference in how students absorb information.”
Incoming Ecology freshman Nicholas Medina said the pandemic has caused financial strain for him and his family, and he feels students should be charged less for fall.
“A majority of classes are online and this is problematic for me as I’ve already gotten my housing paid for,” Medina said. “My dad — who works in the hotel industry and is our family’s main source of income — lost his job. Things are really hard right now. If UNT wants to start positive with new students, I think they need to hear us.”
Despite student opinion, members of the Student Service Fee Advisory Committee told the North Texas Daily student service fees for the upcoming fall semester will likely not be reduced to account for remote delivery of courses.
“As an online student[…] I can confirm that tuition is the same for online classes as in-person classes, even during a non-pandemic semester,” Graduate Student Council President Tiffany E. Miller said in an email to the Daily.
Miller, who is also a member of the SSFAC, said she was not aware of any reduction of the on-campus student fees paid by the majority of the student body, waived to those who belong to a completely online degree program.
Student Government Association Vice President Cameron Combs said life on campus in the fall will not include everything that students have paid for in the previous semesters.
“I am aware that somethings [sic] that are under the student service fee won’t be happening this year,” Combs said in an email to the Daily.
Featured Image: A student boards a bus in front of the Union in April 9, 2019. The university does not have plans to lower tuition or fees for the fall semester, even though some programs will be cut, such as the Distinguished Lecture Series. Image by Samuel Gomez
Article Originally Published by on North Texas Daily
Source: North Texas Daily
