A $1 fee to help fund international travel for 200 or so students a year may be added to tuition for all students beginning in the spring semester.
A $1 international education fee was recommended by the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee Sept. 10 and approved by the board Tuesday if students at the district’s five colleges vote to approve it.
The fee would go toward funding scholarships for students who study abroad.
Although the fee is small, thousands of students would be shelling out more money for something that will not benefit them.
More than 100 students apply to study abroad each semester.
Only about 60 are selected.
About 200 could travel with the $150,000 the fee would generate.
The state Legislature has enabled institutions of higher education to levy a $1-$4 fee to support study-abroad programs.
The fee would not need student approval unless it exceeds $1.
This district would not be the first in the city to implement the fee.
Texas State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at San Antonio already have implemented the fee.
District 2 trustee Denver McClendon disagreed with the fee in the committee meeting, saying it would add an unnecessary fee to students who will see no benefit from it.
District 7 trustee Yvonne Katz favors the fee but only with student approval.
The board did not discuss how campus wide voting would be done.
Of course, it is not clear how students will vote.
After all, it’s only $1 per semester, hardly enough to strap most students for cash.
But it is another attempt to charge for a service the vast majority of the district’s 60,000 students will never use or see benefits of.
Charging students another nonessential fee will lead to additional superfluous fees.
Fees are piling up. What is next, a restroom access fee?
