ETSU students in the digital media program will have to pay an additional fee per credit hour for classes in their major starting next semester.
The Tennessee Board of Regents, the governing body for higher education institutions in Tennessee, approved a $100 fee last summer, for each credit hour students attend in the program.
Digital media used to be known as the “Advanced Visualization Lab” and it teaches computer animation techniques used in film and design graphics programs.
Students in the program are not happy about the fee and are upset about the amount, the implementation and the fact that no other programs on campus have such a fee.
“We’re a little hacked off that we’ve been singled out for this to happen to,” said Chris Vaughn, digital media student and member of ETSU’s EDGE (Engineering Design Graphics Extremists) Club.
Jason Turan, digital media student and EDGE Club president, said that he is upset about the “unprofessional” way students were told of the fee.
“By notifying us last week, that puts everyone in a panic, especially those with financial aid,” Turan said. “I can understand where the fee comes from, but it’s too high.”
A meeting to address student’s concerns about the $100 fee will be held Friday, Nov. 1, in Room 206 in Brown Hall at 1 p.m.
Carroll Hyder, interim dean of ETSU’s College of Applied Science and Technology, said that one major concern of students, and one that will be discussed at the meeting, is to suddenly be told in the middle of the semester that they will have to pay an extra fee.
“As we get into the fall semester, as we get nearer to registration and nearer to the spring semester, the amount of that fee has been a concern, I think, for a lot of people and being imposed in the full amount in the spring,” Hyder said.
“So what is going to be addressed is a ‘phase-in’ of that fee over time so the students are not going to be paying the maximum fee in the spring.”
Hyder said that he was not sure what amount students would have to pay in the spring, but it will not be the full $100 per hour.
A lot of students think that, regardless, the fee may be unjustified because ETSU does not offer the level of education they expect for the money they are being asked to pay.
“A few students feel like this $100 fee is putting their education in the realm of universities that are private institutions that cost $20,000-$30,000 a year,” Vaughn said. “If we’re turning and burning students just to be turning and burning students, then that speaks legs about my degree from ETSU.”
The average digital media student takes at least four hours in the program per semester and usually eight or even 12.
“They’re going to be paying an extra $800-$1,000 a semester until they graduate,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn said he knows the program is expensive to maintain, but there could have been a better way to pay for it.
“We would much have preferred that if they were going to do this kind of stuff, then a flat rate would be better,” he said.
Because of the nature of the digital media program, it costs a lot of money to keep providing the newest equipment.
The program, located in the Scott M. Niswonger Digital Media Center in Millennium Park, is one of the most expensive programs ETSU offers.
Johnson City owns the building and leases it to ETSU. The high cost of the program (it cost about $300,000 in 2000 to upgrade software and hardware) is the main reason for the fee. It’s the biggest expense of the program. Equipment is on a three-year replacement cycle, Hyder said.
When the city pays off the bonds used to build the building, the university will not have to lease the Niswonger building, where classed have been held since January 2001.
Another expense for the program is the addition of a greenroom. A greenroom would allow work on various types of video projects and other media where a certain type of background could be dropped in place, such as in a news-weather broadcast.
Hyder said the greenroom would be about $38,000.
Vaughn and Turman both feel that it is important not just for every digital media student and their parents to attend the Nov. 1 meeting, but for other students, as well.
“If this goes through then that sets a precedent, kind of like opening Pandora’s Box,” Vaughn said.
“If it can happen to us then what’s to keep it from happening in other departments,” Turman said.
Hyder said that he hates to see a fee implemented but there is really no way around it. It is going to become common practice across the country, he said.
“It’s a problem, it’s a problem that goes back to, as everything does, the state budget and how we’re funded,” Hyder said.

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