The Board of Trustees met Thursday and approved a motion to increase the tuition and tuition differential for students by seven percent.
This decision comes after the Florida Legislature approved an eight percent increase in tuition over all Florida universities. The increase now stands at 15 percent for undergraduate tuition. The graduate tuition will have a 15 percent increase in tuition, as well.
Vice President Chief of Staff Tom Serwatka presented the plan for increasing tuition to the board before the decision was made by the BOT. The board was given the option by the Florida Legislature to increase out-of-state fees by up to 15 percent, but Serwatka said the BOT would not increase out-of-state tuition any more than it needed to be.
Apart from the tuition fee, the BOT approved the proposition an additional academic enhancement fee to be paid by the students. The fee will support academic advising in order to improve retention and graduation rates. Other benefits may include expansion of distance learning and additional sections to class schedules. The money raised through the fee will also be channeled into transformational learning opportunities (TLOs) and need-based financial aid.
Ryan • Jun 15, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Maybe UNF should cut some salaries. It’s absurd that people in “Academic Affairs” make in excess of $240,000 while possessing degrees in fields such as “Folklore.”
http://news.jacksonville.com/govtsalaries/index.php?action=search&q=&munc%5B%5D=31&dept=&salary=125000&Submit.x=89&Submit.y=16&Submit=Submit
Anonymous • May 28, 2010 at 1:38 am
First of all, academic advising is ridiculous… There are very few advisors that really take interest in helping shape the futures of the students. I am very curious to see what they actually plan on doing with academic advising to “improve” it. Furthermore, why should WE (the students) have to pay for the administrations inability to “retain” students and/or get them to graduate. Also, Transformational Learning Opportunities are entirely bureaucratic, to receive funding for such events it boils down to what will make UNF look good, rather than what will actually benefit the students. Some people get TLO’s for sums in excess of $10,000, and other people get kicked to the curb.
Just because Florida Legislature grants an increase in college tuition, does not mean that they should. For a University that sprung from Lyndon Johnson’s Higher Education Act of 1965 (and reauthorized in 2008), they are not trying to keep higher education affordable. With the rapid growth that UNF is experiencing due to an increase in popularity (maybe it’s the Fountains dormitory, another wasteful money pit), this increase in Activity and Service Fee paying students should be more than enough to invest in our academic advising (which should be priority over a “lazy river”).
Now this is all just my opinion, but it seems to me that the administration is more interested in collecting our money, regardless of whether we graduate or not. Any incentives to keep students on campus, or increase alumni, are put into place to distort the idea that UNF just wants more money. if students stay, they pay more to UNF rather than some other institution, and if they graduate, an increasing alumni database is great for additional resources.
Don’t get me wrong people, UNF is a great place, and it has come a LONG way in moving toward the upper echelons of Florida’s public Universities. It is still the best “bang for your buck” in Florida with respect to the cost and quality of education. I do not detest UNF as a whole, just the administration’s faulty justification for charging us more money. think about it, 8% increase in tuition for approximately 16,500 students… How much money do they really “NEED?” or should I say “WANT?”