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The Daily Tar Heel

BOT Committee to Discuss UNC Student Fee Increases

The finance committee of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees will meet today to discuss a proposed $74.92 increase in student fees for the 2003-04 school year.

Technology, health services, the Department of Athletics, student activities and student transit services all are scheduled to receive additional funds under the plan proposed by the Chancellor's Committee on Student Fees.

The finance committee meeting will be at 2 p.m. today in 203 Kenan Center, and a recommendation will be made to the full board at its meeting Thursday.

Except for N.C. State and Fayetteville State universities, UNC-CH in 2002-03 has the lowest fees for education and technology, athletics, health services, student activities and debt services than any other system school.

Student fees for this year at UNC-CH total $1,042.10. The proposed increase would raise undergraduate fees by 7.2 percent and graduate fees by 7.3 percent.

A proposed increase of $26.75 to the fee for student activities will cover the operating costs of the Ramshead project, the Student Recreation Center and the Campus Recreation Program, which would use the money to increase the budgets of the 50-plus sports clubs.

Part of the student activities increase also will subsidize child care for student parents under the University's Child Care Financial Assistance Program.

This year, students paid $18.10 more in fees for student activities than last year, with the additional funds benefitting the Campus Recreation Program, the Carolina Union and Student Legal Services.

A $21.25 increase to the debt service fee, charged for the next two years, has been proposed to cover the recreation center's portion of the debt for building the new Ramshead center.

Additional computer labs, new hardware and software and improvements to the Web mail system will be covered by the proposed $15 increase to the educational and technology fee.

Recent spending on building maintenance for campus health buildings and inflation would be covered by a $10 increase in the health service fee.

In addition, the application fees for undergraduate, master's of business administration and master's of accounting programs will increase $5, and a $2 increase has been proposed for the School of Pharmacy application fee.

Finance committee member Karol Mason declined to discuss the specifics of the proposal Tuesday or the likelihood of its approval. "I'm not prepared to comment," she said. "I want to wait until I hear the discussion."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.

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