The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees recently approved a proposal to increase student program fees by an average of 5.6 percent, which include a base fee of six dollars per credit hour for all programs that will cover advising costs. The other fees will differ depending on the students’ program.
According to the proposal that was given to the Board, the following fees will be accredited to each program:
- Engineering: $31/credit hour
- Business: $26/credit hour
- Arts and Sciences: $9-$31/credit hour
- Education: $28/credit hour
- ENR/Haub: $26/credit hour
- Health Science: $12-$27/credit hour
For those programs that include a range of fees, a student’s specific field of study plays a role. In Arts and Sciences, there are three types of degrees offered: Arts and Science, Science and Agriculture, as well as Visual and Performing Arts. The fees for each are $3/credit hour, $21/credit hour and $31/credit hour accordingly.
In Health Sciences, there are two tiers. Tier one (Social Work and WIND) fees are $12/credit hour and tier two (Kinesiology and Health, Communication Disorders, and Nursing) fees are $27/credit hours.
The average cost for students will be $226 per semester and only about a third of students disapproved of the new fees.
Kinesiology student, Kayla White said, “It’s not ideal, but everybody has to pay them. There’s not really anything to do about it.”
Wildlife and Fish Biology and Management student, Addie Perryman, said that she had not heard of the new program fee proposal before.
“I think that the student body was ill informed but they don’t seem like that drastic of changes,” Perryman said. “If they’re paying for stuff that will benefit us in the end, then it should be all right.”
Though they voted in favor of the new fees before they were proposed to the Board, ASUW had reservations at first.
“When the Board swept reserve funds into a general spending fund, some student fees were included with the rest,” ASUW Chief of Staff Courtney Thomson-Lichty said. “We want student fees to be used for exactly what they are intended to be used for.”
ASUW agreed to approve the program fee implementation as long as the Board would provide protection from that happening again.
The new program fees are to be implemented starting in Fall of 2018.
