During last week’s Student Senate meeting, Vice President for Student Life Dr. Celestino Limas introduced a new comprehensive student fee. The student fee will not affect current Elizabethtown College students, but will be implemented for full-time incoming students beginning in the fall 2021 semester. The fee will total 600 dollars, with 300 dollars being paid in the fall semester, and the other 300 dollars being paid in the spring.
Limas revealed that the fee will fund four crucial features of the College. First is parking and repairs on the lots on campus, so new students will not need to pay a separate parking fee. Current students will still need to pay the current 50 dollar fee per semester to have a car on campus. The second feature is the maintenance and general upkeep of the Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being, since that was the most recent major completed project on campus. Third is funding student facility upgrades with an emphasis on upgrades and repairs to residence halls and other common areas. Finally, the new student fee will be used to fund annual ITS upgrades for cybersecurity on campus and better campus servers. All of these areas directly benefit Etown students, which is why the money from the student fee will be allocated to those areas.
Limas detailed a few reasons as to why only incoming students will be paying this fee and not current students. First, he cited when Student Senate sent a survey to current students in fall 2019 about interest in paying a 100 dollar student initiatives fund (to be paid in 50 dollar increments per semester) to enhance student events, clubs and activities. Student Senate also cited other colleges and universities around the Etown area and compared their student activity fees with the proposed one. They also acknowledged that fees are generally unpopular, the fee would increase the financial burden on current full-time students and they could not opt out of the fee. A large majority (75 percent) of the 425 students who voted in the survey disapproved of the fee, so it was not implemented in the following semester. Second, Limas mentioned that many other institutions are adopting much larger comprehensive fees for similar purposes, which influenced how the College determined the amount that new students would pay.
Limas also confirmed that all new students and their families will be fully aware of the comprehensive fee. He stated that the student fee will be separate from tuition in order to keep it from increasing each year. However, he could not definitively confirm that the fee will remain constant or if it will increase or decrease each semester.
Much of this information was also detailed in an admissions Zoom meeting about the new fee for Blue Jay Ambassadors with Limas. He wanted the ambassadors to know about the fee in the situation that prospective families asked about it. He encouraged the participants not to discuss the fee unless prompted. Attendees had numerous questions about it, but feedback was generally positive.
If you wish to know more about the comprehensive fee, contact Student Senate or Limas directly.
