Fee to make IU competitive

The dust has settled, and freshmen at IU now have at least two days of classes under their belts.\nBut there's something about IU's largest freshmen class that already places them on a familiar plane with the rest of the student body.\nThey too will be among the beneficiaries, one of the incumbent classes, that will not shoulder the expense of IU's latest student fee.\nIn a June 21 meeting, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $1,000 fee on the incoming class for the 2003-2004 school year.\nIt's all part of the "Commitment to Excellence" Tuition Program. \nThe program requires next year's incoming freshmen to pay a $1,000 surcharge in addition to their tuition and fees. The money attained from the fee will go toward hiring more full-time, tenure-track faculty, thus lowering the ratio of faculty to students, according to a University statement.\nMoney raised from the fee will go toward the hiring of 100 new faculty members over five years.\nProviding more faculty members and smaller classes will enhance the student academic experience, according to the statement.\nNeil Theobald, vice chancellor for budget and administration, said the program's main purpose is to promote academic excellence on campus.\n"We want to increase the value of academic excellence people are paying for," Theobald said. "There are lots of good ideas out there, almost all of them cost money."\nThe increase of $1,000 per year per student will be assessed next fall, and will continue until all succeeding classes are paying it. At this point the fee will no longer be a surcharge, but rather be included in tuition, Bloomington Faculty Council President Robert Eno said.\nAccording to Eno, the new fee will:\n•Help hire more faculty on the Bloomington campus.\n•Increase financial aid for students whose financial status will not allow them to pay the $1,000 surcharge.\n•Institute better programs by reducing the student/faculty ratio resulting in smaller class sizes.\nEno said he's been waiting for a program like this since he started at IU.\n"From the day I got to this campus and learned what the student-faculty ratio was I felt this was absolutely necessary," Eno said. "This is the Achilles' heel of the University."\n"The state should give funds, but we know that won't happen with the current state budget. So the only alternative to keeps us in the running with other schools is to raise tuition."\nBoth the University of Illinois and Ohio State University have implemented similar tuition policies, Eno said.\nIU Chancellor Sharon Brehm plans to develop a strategic planning committee to help determine where the money is distributed, Theobald said.\n"The portion of the fee that will go toward financial aid is fixed," he said. \nMoney slated for the other programs will be allocated at a later time. As for now, Theobald said March 15 is the tentative date set for this budget.\n"Nobody wants to impose this on students," Eno said. "We'd love to do this right and get moving on the faculty hirings, but we can't. Although (tuition) is more costly, the higher education here at IU is worth it"