Maintaining good health is not related to learning?  I believe there is
a good body of research that says otherwise.  If I am not mistaken, UTC
is the only public university in Tennessee that does not assess a
student health fee or require students to have health insurance. Between
those two choices, the student health fee is much more economical for
most students.  Factor in that many of our students come from poor
families that do not have health insurance, then the possible
requirement to purchase health insurance becomes an expensive barrier to
poor students attending the university.  I believe most students will
support a health fee if they understand that students will be served at
the clinic regardless of their ability to pay.

Larry Garrison, Ed.D.


-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Dr. Joe Dumas
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 12:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Fees, Fees, Fees [Was: Re: More on campus recycling]

David Aborn wrote:
> E.D.G.E (Ecological Decisions for a Global Environment), has been
working hard this year campaigning for a student clean campus fee.

Give me a break.  Or, more to the point, give our students a break.

Technology fee.  Facilities fee.  Athletics fee.  The last thing we 
heard about is a push for a Health fee.  Now this.  When does it stop?

Already (without the Health and Clean Campus fees, plus any other new 
ones that are no doubt being dreamed up as I type) a full-time, in-state

undergraduate pays $470 per semester in fees on top of the $1874 
tuition.  This is a surcharge of over 25%.  (And that is *not* counting 
the parking decal fees that are "optional" but effectively required for 
the vast majority of our students.)  Even our sales tax, which everyone 
seems to gripe about, is only 9.25%!

It is one thing to charge fees for things that relate at least somewhat 
to the students' education.  One could make a case for the Technology 
fee and maybe one or two of the other existing fees on this basis.  But 
athletics, health, and "clean campus" fees are obviously related very 
little, if at all, to the reason most students come to UTC ... to get an

education.  Really, these fees (and proposed fees) are simply welfare 
programs for someone's pet causes at the expense of our students ... 
many of whom work part- or full-time, and or take out student loans, to 
finance their attendance here.

It seems like almost every day I hear around campus (or see on Raven) 
that we need to improve access for students, increase enrollment, and so

on.  Every year when we inevitably go up on tuition, there is much 
wailing and moaning that the students are having to bear more of the 
burden of paying for their own education.  But when these ridiculous 
fees are proposed and, invariably, put in place (then raised almost at 
will) -- hardly a peep.  Rather, it appears that faculty, and especially

administrators, almost line up to support the idea.

I remember coming here in 1993 and hearing the recruitment and retention

rallying cry, "10,000 by 2000."  Of course it didn't happen.  It is 2007

and we haven't topped 9,000 enrollment yet, let alone 10,000.  Most 
years it is about all we can do not to lose students.  Has anyone 
besides me put two and two together and thought "maybe, just maybe, the 
ever-increasing fees are part of what is running current and potential 
students off?"

I am all in favor of students paying for their own education.  You 
appreciate something more when you pay for it yourself.  But, I don't 
believe they should be forced to pay for "extras" that do not relate to 
the reasons they came here.  I guess I'm just the lone voice crying in 
the wilderness, though.

> If the student body votes in favor of this fee,

Why bother having them vote?  It is all too plain to the students that 
UTC is not a democracy.  They voted by a 3-1 margin against the 
athletics fee (probably more like 10 or 20 to 1 if you discount the 
athletes turning out to vote for benefits for themselves at the expense 
of the other students).  The administration imposed the fee anyway.  So 
why give them the delusion that their vote matters?

As I said above, though, the students *do* have one vote that matters. 
They can vote with their feet, and go somewhere else.  I suspect to some

extent that has already happened, which is one reason our enrollment has

not increased as most of us would like.  I fear adding more and more 
fees will make this problem worse.  But I wonder if anyone in our 
administration is paying attention?

Joe

-- 
Joe Dumas, Ph.D.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Computer Science & Electrical Engineering
Dept. 2302
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone:  (423) 425-4084
Fax:  (423) 425-5442
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]

Notice:  This correspondence should be considered a public record
and subject to public inspection pursuant to the Tennessee Public
Records Act.

"You have enemies?  Good.  That means you've stood up for something,
sometime in your life." -- Sir Winston Churchill

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