Students sound off on Bursar bill on new Web site

With the click of a mouse, students can now express feedback regarding the mandatory activity and service fees that appear on their Bursar bills. \nThe Office of the Dean of Students recently constructed a Web site allowing students to view prospective fee changes and submit their views via e-mail to the Committee for Fee Review. The site is available at campuslife.indiana.edu/feereview.\nSix student voting members are on the committee, which supervises mandatory fee levels and analyzes proposals by the organizations that charge them. Each year, the committee recommends various changes to what appears on students' Bursar bills. These commentaries are available on the committee's Web site.\nSenior Meredith Suffron, IU Student Association president and non-voting chairman of the committee, said the site was created to solicit student feedback.\n"We wanted to make sure that students could make their voices heard, and make as much information available to them as possible," she said. "I think it's important for students to see how much they actually spend on these services, and they would probably be interested to see where their money is going."\nSuffron said that this year the committee has recommended that the fee for recreational sports be listed separately from other mandatory charges on Bursar bills. She said the mandatory activity fee is $53.61, but most students do not know that $34.84 of that payment goes toward recreational sports.\n"I think the overall fee sounds deceiving," she said. "When students see a mandatory fee of over $50, they start to question it. More than $30 of that goes to recreational sports. The committee believes that if students see the recreational sports charges itemized separately, they will see that the overall charges are pretty reasonable."\nAssociate Dean of Students Damon Sims serves the committee as a non-voting advisory member.\n"There are an extraordinary set of programs available to students," Sims said. "The nice thing about a mandatory fee is that the costs are spread among a lot of people, and therefore, the programs are made relatively inexpensive for the individual student. \nBut at the same time, there are some substantial fees on that list. I think the committee has done a great job determining what the proper level of those fees should be, and it's reflective of the students' interests because students are the ones making the decisions."\nSuffron said she hopes every student will log onto the committee's Web site.\n"This is the only practice on campus where students are allowed fee level input," Suffron said. "It's important for them to be informed about how their money is spent."\nGraduate student Junghoon Kim expressed enthusiasm about the site.\n"I think it is a positive step because students can have a significant impact on decision-making," he said.\nStudents can e-mail comments to cfr@indiana.edu.