Ohio University’s general fee, which most full-time students pay $712 toward each semester, pays for various student services across campus, but many students are unaware of the fee and what it goes toward.
The fee is less expensive for students who enrolled prior to 2015 or are in non-degree-seeking programs at $640. It is universally charged, supplementing OU’s unrestricted institutional resource fund alongside other university-wide revenue sources such as instructional fees, non-resident fees and state subsidies. The general fee aims to support student and campus improvement efforts determined by university priorities.
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration John Day said the general fee and other revenue sources are allocated to support university budget planning processes.
“The General Fee … helps fund key University priorities, including our recent investments in increased student support services like Student Health, Counseling and Psychological Services, or CPS, and Well-Being and Recreation,” Day wrote in an email.
For four years, OU has been ranked the best value public university in the state of Ohio by U.S News and World Report College Ranking. Best value criteria are evaluated based on the Common Data Sets provided by universities and other measures collected by third-party sources for consideration, according to an article published by the U.S. News and World Report.
In Ohio, OU ranked second among all state universities excluding Northeast Ohio Medical Universities, in annualized full-time undergraduate fees in 2021 for in-state students, with $12,840 per the university fact book.
Chief of Staff for the Division of Student Affairs Megan Vogel said general fee money is vital to many of the programs that allow students to thrive on campus in the first place.
“Student services are critical for supporting students outside the classroom – this leads to an increased sense of belonging and engagement, which are key factors to student retention and persistence,” Vogel wrote in an email. “As we look to the next fiscal year, we will continue to evaluate and determine next steps to meeting the needs of students.”
Courtney Silver-Peavey, a fifth-year graduate student in the biology department and Graduate Student Senate member, collected data on OU’s annual fees for the past four years.
“I have all this data on the general fee, and our general fee is substantially higher than our sister schools and other schools in Ohio,” Silver-Peavey said.
In meetings with former OU President Hugh Sherman, Graduate College Dean David Koonce and the Graduate Employee Organization, or GEO, Silver-Peavey showed that OU’s annual fees were 17% higher than that of similar schools in the state. Silver-Peavey said the administration seemed responsive to her research at first.
“Before the pandemic, we had discussed a buydown of the general fee,” Silver-Peavey said. “We were going to work together on decreasing it. I proposed a plan on how to decrease the general fee over five years. Everybody seemed to like it.”
After several months of deliberation, the progress seemed to stop. Silver-Peavey described her plan as dead in the water, with the administration unresponsive to further inquiries. In addition to the general fee, students already pay a fee toward support services like CPS and Wellbeing and Recreation in their tuition. Silver-Peavey said other uses for these funds should be explored.
“I think there needs to be a clear statement on exactly where this funding is going,” Silver-Peavey said. “If this funding is going to areas that are already funded or overfunded … listen to the student body on what areas we truly need to be focused on.”
In the 2022-23 academic year, 95% of OU’s first-year students received financial aid, with an average aid offer of $4,281 per student, according to the Peer Institution Comparison document on OU’s website. Despite receiving just over $8,000 in scholarships and financial aid, Eden Scali, an undecided first-year student said she is still concerned about the cost of her college experience.
“It’s unfair,” Scali said. “It wouldn’t be if (university administration) could give a reason, an exact reason, of what (the general fee) might be for.”
Scali said she was unaware that OU charges a general fee and thinks the university could put funds toward helping pay for books and transportation costs for commuters like herself.
In an effort to expand its commitment to transparency, predictability and an affordable college experience, OU started The OHIO Guarantee+ program, which allows students, Ohio residents and nonresidents alike, to pay a fixed rate on tuition, room and board and fees for four years, according to the undergraduate admissions website.
Students who are not enrolled in the OHIO Guarantee+ program are automatically charged a Wellbeing Fee. This fee works to reduce the cost and improve the quality of health care service for students on campus.
“If the Wellbeing Fee is not waived, there is no additional cost for services at CPS during the semester in which the fee is paid,” the CPS website states. “If the Wellbeing Fee is waived, students may pay $20 per individual therapy session, $75 per semester for group therapy, $90 for a psychiatry intake, and $60 per psychiatry follow-up appointment."
Additionally, students who miss their CPS appointments are charged $20 per missed individual therapy session, $20 per missed group therapy session, $90 per missed psychiatry intake and $60 per missed psychiatry follow-up appointment.
Silver-Peavey said she sees no problem with funding important resources like CPS, but hopes that continued collaboration between Student Senates and employees will result in more accountability and transparency from university administration about where money is going.
“I think the student body and faculty and staff deserve to have an input in or at least some sort of conversation on where we think extra funds should go,” Silver-Peavey said.
