As a student preparing for graduation, I’m learning now of the various fees and charges associated with getting out of here and getting my degree in hand. As a student that sits on the Student Fee Committee, I thought that I was already aware of how fees affect students and what they go towards. However, as I’ve learned through graduation, there are seemingly endless little fees that every student must pay.
I understand that UNI is a cash-strapped institution and that we do the best we can, but I think there is something that must be done. While UNI’s tuition has remained “frozen” for a fourth year in a row , our fees have gone up every year at UNI. Fees such as the technology fee and the student health fee to go towards essential services on campus that all students use, or would use in case of an emergency.
All told, full-time students at UNI pay roughly $1000 in fees every year. Even if all students don’t make use of all the resources on campus, some students use every resource every year.
Even if you didn’t attend a single athletic event last year, you probably used the campus WiFi, may have caught a show at the GBPAC for a reduced price or something in between. However, there are hundreds of students every year that are prevented from using these services but are still forced to pay full fees every year, and this has got to change.
If you’re an education major planning on student teaching, or in a major that requires an internship, you are required to spend at least a semester off-campus building invaluable work experience to catapult you into your career. The downside is that the semester you student teach, potentially far from campus or even out of state, you’ll still pay full tuition and fees at UNI during that time. If you have an internship or work experience as a part of your major, you’re looking at a semester of tuition and fees regardless if you set foot in Cedar Falls.
Most student teachers also have to pay their host teacher out of pocket, and go to great lengths to find affordable housing while they student teach, all while being unpaid.
It is clear that UNI is placing an unfair burden on students who are trying to become the best in their field. Personally, I think that it’s nonsense that these students not only pay full tuition, but full fees!
I’m calling for a total re-thinking in how UNI treats its students on internship and in student teaching. Rather than increasing the debt load of these students, UNI should be rewarding the ambition and success of these students by giving them a break on fees.
This is a start in the right direction for something that is simply unfair and discriminatory towards students engaged off campus.
If UNI really is the absolute best place to become a teacher in Iowa, let’s treat our outgoing teachers with some respect, and recognize that they’re being unfairly assessed fees they don’t have a chance to take advantage of. Let’s begin by waiving all fees for student-teachers and students on internships off-campus.
UNI needs to get serious about student debt, and student fees are a good place to start. If UNI refuses to do this, it is an endorsement that they see students as nothing more than an additional revenue stream. What message are we sending our rookie teachers, when their last semesters at UNI are spent with one last dig into their checkbook?
Instead let’s send the message that we value our students and soon-to-be alumni, and that we’re serious about keeping college costs down. Let’s end fees for student teaching, and let us begin a sober conversation about what role fees play in UNI’s funding model.
