by Kelly Pottinger
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

"There are several factors that are taken into account in determining the fees; however, the university is committed to providing the best possible education and educational environment for its students as cost-efficiently as possible," said Theresa Presswood, director of communication for UH-Clear Lake.

"For example, state law sets the maximum for the tuition designation, fee per semester credit hour, to be equivalent to the current rate for undergraduate tuition, which is $44; however, UH-Clear Lake charges only $41 at this time‹ $3 less than the amount authorized by state law," Presswood said.

Other Texas public universities have been trying to persuade the Texas Legislature to deregulate tuition, meaning each individual university's Board of Regents would set their own tuition. In Governor Perry's State of the State address on Feb. 11, he mentioned his support for deregulation of tuition in light of the recent state budget crisis. However, universities risk losing state funding if tuition is deregulated.

Other increases for UH-Clear Lake include raising computer use fees $84 to $90, library use fees from $27 to $36, the voice response fee from $10 to $13, and a former student application fee from $10 to $35 to cover the new implementation of PeopleSoft, the university's new computer software program.

"Tuition designated can be used for any purpose to support the university. The list includes, but is not limited to, academic advising, credit card processing, PeopleSoft project, marketing and recruitment, and the writing center," said Jean Carr, budget office director.

Distance and extended education fees will no longer be charged to those students who sign up for distance education classes; however, a new extended access and support fee will be added for every student at $4 per student per semester generating $227,072 in additional revenue.

From these few fee increases, the university will increase revenue by $922,839. This number does not include tuition increases. The exact numbers will not be determined until the state legislature sets the maximum tuition rate and then it will be up to the Board of Regents for the UH System to determine the actual rates.

"The Board of Regents will meet in March to approve tuition and fee requests," Carr said.

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