University administrators met with the Student Government Association on Tuesday to address concerns over a controversial fee increase for upper-level business courses.
The $20-per-credit-hour fee began last fall and is expected to raise tuition costs for business students by as much as $1,400 over a four-year period.
Last week, the SGA voted in favor of a resolution that would seek to end the fee.
President Jarrod Suits chose to veto that legislation, but this week, the Senate attempted to override the executive veto by a vote of 7-1-3.
Vice President Kayla Griffith, however, chose to count the abstentions as negatives votes, and the Senate’s override attempt failed. It needed a two-thirds majority of votes.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Dr. Bert C. Bach, provost and vice president of academic affairs, defended the increase as a necessary evil – the product of a series of state funding cuts and the high cost of business courses.
“If you all agree that ETSU should have a quality business college,” Bach said, “then the issue is not funding, but the source of funding.”
Bach said the college would raise about $475,000 per year in funding from the fee.
Some students, however, were more concerned about where the money was going.
“I’m not opposed to a fee,” said Sen. Ethan Flynn, who co-sponsored a resolution to end the tuition hike on the grounds that the fee was unnecessary, “but I am opposed to this fee.”
Dr. Linda Garceau, dean of the college of business and technology, presented a proposed budget to students that listed where the money would be allocated.
The list included computer software and research tools for faculty and students, improved class equipment, facility improvements and more.
Flynn, however, said the proposed budget did not adequately reflect the needs of students and faculty.
Business faculty would not receive salary increases with the money, and students,were unable to see how the money was benefiting them, he said.
“I think you’re out of touch with the students,” he told Garceau.
Flynn and other students also maintained that the administration acted in an underhanded manner when students weren’t told about the fee increase. The result was an unexpected tuition increase of up to $300 – a figure some students have difficulty raising at the last minute.
“It wasn’t the fee; it was the fact that we weren’t informed,” said Jason Coffey, a senior in corporate finance. “It’s as if [administrators] were afraid we’d uprise [if we knew about the fee],” he said.
In the end, Bach and Garceau conceded that, while they believed the fee was necessary and fair, communication between administration and students should be improved.
Garceau insisted, however, that failing to contact students before the fee was implemented was an oversight and completely unintentional.
She apologized for not informing business students of the fee before they registered for classes. A letter should have gone out, Garceau said. “Hindsight is 20-20,” she said.
She also said she would consider apologizing to business students for this oversight in an open forum to be held sometime in March or April.
In other news, the SGA allocated nearly $10,500 to 20 student organizations.
The SGA meets Tuesdays at 4 p.m in the Forum.

Author