Fees Lumped Into Tuition Cost

Student fees will now be incorporated into tuition, and students will pay an all-encompassing credit hour rate of $227 instead of separate lines for each fee.

There will still be course fees and a $150 registration fee for students taking fewer than 15 hours in a semester. USA’s Board of Trustees approved the move at its June 10 meeting.

According to the resolution the Board passed, it will be a “simpler tuition structure that integrates required fees with credit hour charges, providing students and parents with easier cost comparisons among institutions, greater predictability in budgeting for college, and less complicated billing, at the same time ensuring that all student services previously supported by individually designated fees will continue to receive funding at levels equal to those approved by the Board of Trustees.”

University President Gordon Moulton touted the simplicity of the new tuition structure.

“A student’s tuition bill includes a string of charges and fees … building fees, athletic fees, activity fees,” Moulton said. “And invariably, some students say, ‘Well, I don’t participate in that. Why should I have to pay for it?’

“It had gotten very complex to tell someone the cost of going to the institution,” Moulton added. “I feel very good about the change going forward. Auburn recently made a similar change, and I think you will see more institutions going this route.”