No more non-manditory fees, but there’s a catch

Guest Columnist Steve Clark

Student Body President

 At 8:30 in the morning I sat in the student affairs office wide eyed and full of coffee for a meeting on non-mandatory student fees. I was quite interested in the prospect of eliminating any fee that I would have to pay.

Examples of non-mandatory would include the graduation fee, transcript fee, applied music fee, orientating fee and many others. Eliminating these fees sounds like a great idea for a number of reasons.

First, it will increase financial aid for students who apply by rolling the non-mandatory fees into the cost of tuition. By doing this it allows financial aid to cover these fees because they are rolled into tuition.

The most promising effect of having no fees is that Oakland will be the only university in the state of Michigan with no student fees. This gives Oakland several advantages in the competitive market of higher education.

Application fees can cost a lot, especially if you are applying to more than one school. Having no application fee also provides relief for students who have a hard time finding the extra money to apply and could potentially boost enrollment.  

Non-mandatory fees also just piss people off. The graduation fee, which currently is $35, is almost a slap in the face after paying 30 to $40,000 for a bachelor’s degree. As a college student who is paying for my own education, I know how much fees are unexpected and often expensive.

So what’s the catch? Well, if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is — that’s at least what I’ve been told. The catch is that tuition will be raised by one percent to make up for the elimination of non-mandatory fees.

Apparently these non-mandatory fees are more mandatory than the name implies because $1.4 million is generated in income from these fees. For many, the words “tuition increase” are filthy and nasty.  

You can package paying for higher education many ways but it’s still paying for education. Whether you call it a fee, non-mandatory fee or tuition, students like you and me are going to have to pay for higher education.

I’m sure many people do not support an increase in tuition for whatever reason. As your student body president, if you disagree with me, please come to my office located in Oakland University Student Congress, in the basement of the Oakland Center. You won’t hurt my feelings.