Board of Trustees approves $225 per semester student services fee; no tuition increase
Though there is no tuition increase for Central Michigan University students during the 2018-19 school year, the board of trustees approved a new $225 student services fee that will be charged each semester.
At its June 28 meeting, the board voted to keep the same undergraduate tuition rates for the coming school year. Resident tuition is $417 per credit hour. Non-resident tuition is $789 per credit hour.
The $225 student services applies to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students regardless of class load, and also applies to online and satellite location students. The fee is estimated to earn the university an additional $10 million annually. The money from the fee will go towards what the board called "additional emphasis" on a variety of student services, including:
- Academic advising efforts
- Career development and placement services
- Counseling services
- Leadership development for all students
- Financial wellness and management initiatives
- Mentoring and success coaching
- Student engagement programming
- Student recreation and wellness
- Technology upgrades and support
- Campus safety
Trustee William Weideman said that improvements to the counseling center are of high priority importance to the university.
When will students start to see the effect of more staff and expanded services on campus from their student services fee?
Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services Barrie Wilkes said it depends on how long it takes to hire new staff such as counselors, academic advisors, success coaches and police officers.
The university has already invested in some of these areas, but has used university annual reserve funds to do so. The fee will be used to contribute to those areas and new ones as well, such as increased campus security.
"President Ross and I have agreed to put some additional resources into police," Wilkes said. "Both in terms of additional officers as well as some other support funding."
The university has already hired two new officers to replace two they lost, and will wait until the end of the year to recruit more.
The fee will directly contribute to improving the university's counseling center. New counselors will be hired, among other additional resources. The academic support committee of the academic reorganization initiative provided a report recommending additions and changes to the center. No changes will be made until that proposal has been reviewed.
