Republished October 9, 2018 — originally published in the UNO Driftwood newspaper September 15, 2017. https://unodriftwood.com/1855/news/tuition-fees-and-charges-explained-part-i/
If you looked at your Fee Bill or Student Account Detail on the University of New Orleans (UNO) WebStar site, you may have noticed all the fees that are on your bill besides just tuition. These fees have been an ongoing concern for the thousands of students who have to pay all these fees each semester — often for things they may never use.
While students have been hearing about cutbacks from state subsidies that caused their tuition to go up, many universities and colleges have also been tacking on fees that further increased the total amount that each student pays every semester.
According to this article, https://unodriftwood.com/868/news/uno-tuition-price-holds-steady-fees-nearly-double/, in The Driftwood in fall 2016, tuition has remained steady the past couple of years but the fees have risen considerably. Where tuition has increased from $2,582 to $3,045 between fall 2012 and fall 2016/2017, an increase of nearly $500.00 (nearly 20 percent), fees have more than quadrupled from $343 to almost $1,450 (over 400 percent). According to the article, “Just four years ago, a student could attend UNO for less than half the price of what the tuition [and fees are] now.”
A really big and unexplained fee is for Other Mandatory Fees — $529.81. The Privateer Bucks, Fuel Recovery Charge, and Student Retention Initiative Fee are other larger fees that were not easily recognized for what they are.
Bursar Brett Cassell was asked for comment on the fees and referred all inquiries to the public relations department representative, Adam Norris. When contacted, Norris, UNO’s chief communications officer, asked for all questions to be put in writing and Norris replied by email.
“The Other Mandatory Fees are comprised of the various Tuition Components. We do not publish these, but they are as follows, and most are self-explanatory: 1. General Fee, 2. Campus Beautification Fee, 3. SS Referendum ’87, 4. Facility Use and Maintenance, 5. Auxiliary Plant, 6. Athletics, 7. Student Health, 8. University Center, 9. Student Services, 10. University Services, 11. Driftwood [possibly meaning this newspaper], and 12. Wellness Center,” said Norris.
Norris further stated that the following link gives a description of most of the fees. You can just click on the fee at the bottom of the Web page to see an explanation of them. http://www.uno.edu/bursar/tuitionfees.aspx. “Also, there are numerous courses with Course Fees added by the department,” added Norris. Here is a link to a list of those fees [near the bottom]: http://www.uno.edu/registrar/catalog/1718catalog/tuition-fees.aspx
“Regarding the Privateer Bucks, any unused portion will roll forward as long as the student is at UNO. Once the student either graduates or leaves UNO, the student can receive a full refund for any unused portion of the Privateer Bucks,” said Norris.
According to this second article, https://unodriftwood.com/1049/university/university-administration-explains-current-fee-increases/) in the Driftwood in fall 2016, “There will be no tuition increase,” said Adam Norris, the university’s chief communication officer. “Rather than increase tuition, the university tacked on two other mandatory university fees: the Privateers Spirit fee and the Student Retention Initiative fee. “The dedicated fees were taken to the Student Government and a separate open forum was held in May [2016] to discuss the proposed fees. The rationale for these fees was shared at that forum, as we wanted student input and feedback,” said Norris. Norris added, “It should be noted that these are mandatory fees, and financial aid and scholarships can be used to cover their cost.”
Most of the students talked to about these fees had not really looked into them. They were surprised at how many fees there were and the dollar amount on some of them.
“I live at Privateer Place and go to UNO full-time and I could have used the $125 mandated for Privateer Bucks to buy food that I could have cooked myself instead of spending it on much higher priced restaurant food. I could have also used that money for books, rent, and other necessities,” said Ngugi Gathige, an incoming transfer student from Delgado Community College (DCC). “It’s bad enough that UNO costs twice as much than DCC and my grants do not cover all the tuition and fees so I had to pay out-of-pocket for some of the expenses and books,” continued Gathige.
“The much higher and continually rising cost to attend UNO will also mean higher student loans that have to be paid back by so many students,” said Gathige.
“While wages for most people in Louisiana have remained stagnant for the past 10 years, the cost of going to college just keeps going up higher and higher,” said Gathige.
