New fee's purpose reviewed

Freshman Emily Hanover doesn't worry about the cost of an IU education that much. After all, she doesn't have to pay for her time here -- her parents take care of that.\nHowever, even she knows that it puts a little more of a burden on her family because they now have to pay an extra $1,000 fee every year she attends IU.\n"I really don't think about the fee that much since I don't actually foot the bills, but I'm sure my dad thinks about it," Hanover said.\nThe freshman fee, which raised tuition for students almost 25 percent, took effect at the beginning of the semester for all freshmen and transfer students. The fee goes toward the new Commitment to Excellence fund.\nThe fee is expected to generate $7.1 million for IU this year and $28 million over the next four years. \nUniversity leaders say the fee will give IU the resources to pursue new projects, but others question the necessity of new fees implemented at universities all over the state.\n"I think their plans are the methodology of justifying the ever-increasing prices they want to charge," said State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee.\nKenley said even though the Indiana General Assembly added $53 million over two years to state financial aid, lawmakers still had to put caps on the amount available to students because the state could not keep pace with tuition hikes. He said he intends to introduce legislation that would create an inflation cap for tuition, guaranteeing rates would not rise much more than 2 percent during a student's four-year education.\nPurdue University instituted a similar fee last year, with Ball State University, Indiana State University and IU following up with their own fees this year. But university officials said the freshman fee at IU had been in the planning stages for some time.\n"It's my impression that the discussion about the fee for new students started some time ago," IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. "Many schools have taken this approach. It was not based on Purdue's decision."\nThis first year, the fee is being used to develop seven projects that will hire 25 additional faculty members with expertise in Eastern studies, 21 faculty members for the biology department and four master's teachers to the music department, among other faculty additions and the creation of new undergraduate and master's degrees.\nHanover wonders why every new student is paying for things just a few will benefit from.\n"If it helps those fields it seems like they should just have everyone in those fields pay for them," she said.\nBrehm said helping just a few specific areas will help all graduates.\n"These funds will be used to create or strengthen academic programs that will enhance the reputation of Indiana University," Brehm said. "As IU's prestige increases, so does the value of each student's degree. Thus, this is an investment that will serve you well for the rest of your life."\nNot everyone feels IU's prestige is as important as Brehm makes it out, however.\n"Benchmark programs like business and music do lend to raising the overall perception of IU academics," said IU Student Association Vice President Grant McFann. "But, perception is not everything. We are concerned that funding generated by the Commitment to Excellence fee enhances only select, already thriving programs. It does not benefit all, or even a majority, of students -- only those in select programs."\nBrehm also said it is impossible to know in advance what programs would be selected and thus, not possible to charge a fee to only the students in them. \n"The programs that are funded are selected through a competitive process. Thus, we didn't know in advance which programs would be funded," Brehm said. "Moreover, as I noted, the value of your degree is enhanced. And this value depends on the reputation of the whole institution, not only the \nreputation of your particular degree program."\nBut McFann questions if extra funding for so few programs is really benefiting everyone.\n"The fee raised tuition almost 25 percent last year, making it difficult for many families to pay for education at a school they already subsidize through their taxes," McFann said. "Basically, a fee of such weight should benefit more students than it does, and the University administration should more closely consider the University mission and potential effects on the state when implementing any program, especially one of this stature. A pretty name does not necessarily equate to a worthwhile endeavor"