SUBJECT: FEES RELATED TO INSTRUCTION

APPLICABILITY: TOTAL UNIVERSITY AND STUDENTS

Instruction related fees may be collected from students under the authority of the Incidental Fee Statute (Sec 54.504 VACS). The rate of the fee charged must reasonably reflect the actual costs to the University of the materials and services for which the fee is collected. These costs must be directly associated with classroom activity and cannot include faculty salaries.

Requests to change or charge a fee related to instruction must be submitted to the Provost's office for approval. The request will then be forwarded to the Controller's office for review and evaluation. The Controller's office will submit the request to the VP for Finance and Business Affairs or their designee for final approval. Approval from the Board of Regents may be required depending on the nature of the fee.

Request to Add/Change Fee forms are available through the Budget Office.

Any questions regarding the use of funds raised by a fee should be directed to the Budget office.

Course Fee

The following guidelines should be used for Course Fee Accounts:

The amount of the course fee may not vary among courses (unless there is no charge for a specific course) within an academic department. Furthermore, the amount of the fee may not exceed the approximate cost of services a student is eligible to receive from a department while enrolled in a course. Any deviations to the amount charged for the course fee within a department must be approved in writing by the Controller's Office.

1. Consumable Supplies - Allowable costs would include all materials taken by the student from the classroom. Materials include copying charges for syllabi and tests, hand-outs, diskettes, wood, clay, etc.

2. Salaries and Wages - The employment of classified personnel or student workers will be allowed for such duties as the preparation and distribution of classroom materials, maintenance of student material (consumable supplies as described above) and/or equipment stockrooms. A job description of each regular salaried position being paid from a course fee account must be submitted to the Budget office for approval before the position will be set up on the payroll. Once approved, the job duties of the approved position may not change without the written approval of the Budget office.

The course fee may not be used to cover the cost of any other type of employment such as tutors, graders, models, Proctors, or lab assistants (such costs may be covered by a special service fee).

In addition the course fee may not be used to pay the salary or wages of an individual who performs general office functions such as receptionist duties, answering the phone, general filing, or processing vouchers.

3. Equipment - Equipment charged to a course fee account must include a statement on the purchase document (Purchase Order or Interdepartmental Order) by the account holder, which certifies that the equipment will be used exclusively by students in a laboratory or classroom setting. A written request for review by the Controller's office will need to be made in all other cases. This request must describe and document how the equipment will benefit the students in the classroom or lab. An example of an equipment purchase that would probably be allowable is a copier (with an auditron) that is used to produce classroom materials for students. Documentation of estimated types of usage would need to be provided as a part of the request for review.

Special Service Fees

The following guidelines should be used for Special Service Fees:

The amount of the fee must not exceed the approximate cost of materials and services a student is eligible to receive while enrolled in a course. These costs must be directly associated with classroom, lab, or practicum activity and cannot include faculty salaries.

1. Examples would be a "Writing Lab" fee, a "Tutor" fee, a "Grader" fee, a "Proctor" fee, a "Child Development Center" fee or an "Instrument" fee.

2. Consumable Supplies - Fees for all materials used in directly providing the service to the student are allowable.

3. Salaries and Wages - The fee may be used to cover the direct operating cost of the activity described by the fees name, and therefore may include wages and salaries of individuals whose sole functions are to work in the activity for which the fee is collected. The function must be in direct support of instruction.

Virtually any job classification, with the exception of faculty, may be paid from this source of funds. A description of each position and the related job duties must be submitted to the Budget office for approval before the position can be set up on the payroll. Once approved, these job duties may not change without the written approval of the Budget office.

4. Equipment and Materials - The fee may also be used to purchase equipment and materials necessary to provide the services for which the fee is collected. All equipment purchase requests must include a statement on the purchase document (Purchase Order or IDO) by the account holder, which certifies that the equipment is necessary to provide the services for which the fee is collected. For potential purchase of equipment for which this statement is not true, a written request for review by the Controller's office will need to be made. This request must describe and document how the equipment will be used to benefit the students who are charged the Special Services Fee.

Equipment costs may include related maintenance and software.

In determining the amount to be charged for equipment, it would be appropriate in most cases to determine the replacement cost of the equipment and, in effect, charge the fee at a level sufficient to build the fee account balance to the level needed to replace the equipment when needed.

Disposition of obsolete equipment purchased by fee income must be in accordance with University Policy. The Asset Management office should be contacted to provide guidance in this matter.

Laboratory Fees

Sec. 54.501 of the Higher Education Code requires that all institutions of higher education set and collect a Laboratory charge in an amount sufficient to cover in general the cost of Laboratory materials and supplies used by a student. The Laboratory charge may not be less than $2 nor more that $30 for any one semester or summer term for any student in any one Laboratory course, but shall not exceed the cost of actual materials and supplies used by the student.

The following guidelines should be followed:

- The Lab fee is applicable to Laboratory courses only. Therefore the fee should be charged only for courses which require the student to register for a Lab section.

- The fee may be used for materials and supplies only.

- The costs of equipment and wages needed to run the Lab are allowable, but fall under the guidelines for Special Service Fees, and would be set up under a separate account.