University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Policy Name: College Technology Fees
Policy Number: LR 302.5
Effective Date: June 5, 2013
Policy
On April 7, 2000, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees adopted schedules of tuition and fees for all University of Arkansas campuses. For UA Little Rock, the Board approved a new technology fee for each college. The college-based technology fee replaces the laboratory and materials fees previously attached to a large number of courses. The new fee attaches to college credit hours. The technology fee has been set at a level for each college that will generate a total fee income for each college which exceeds the income generated by the previous course fees for the college. In short, in terms of total fee income, all colleges are “winners.”
This policy is revised and adopted each year to reflect changes in tuition and fees at UA Little Rock. The following guidelines and procedures will apply to the new college-based technology fee:
- The name “technology fee” is to be broadly interpreted. Assuming the monies were previously essential and continue to be essential to the departments receiving course-based fees, the dean of each college will first need to allocate dollars from the technology fee to replace the dollars previously received by various departments from the course-related fees.
- The new fee is a college fee and should not be distributed among departments on the simple basis of student semester credit hours or other pro-rata basis. The fees should be used to serve college interests and priorities, and these needs and priorities require different levels of spending on materials, equipment, software, and activities among the several departments in a college.
- At the beginning of a fiscal year, the total fee revenue for a college will appear in the new budget book in a line in the dean’s office. It will be the responsibility of the dean to make allocations from that college fund to the various departments. This will include allocations for salaries and fringe benefits of lab coordinators or other personnel who previously were supported by the income generated by the course-based fees.
- The allocation of fee income will be made on the previous year base. That is, the figure which appears in the budget book for a new fiscal year on July 1 will be based on student semester credit hours generated by a college in the preceding Spring, Fall, Summer I, and Summer II terms. Therefore, if a college experiences an increase in enrollment, fees will “catch up” a year later. Similarly, if a college experiences a decline in enrollment, the reduced fee income will not be felt until a year later.
- The purpose of the college-based technology fee, as was the case previously with the course-based fees, is to support and enrich the instructional program of the students who paid the fees. Therefore, in general, fee income should be spent in the year in which it is budgeted to a college.
- A college may carry over the technology fee from one fiscal year to the next so long as the carry-over amount does not exceed 100% of the previous unused technology fee allocation.
- The chancellor will determine each year whether carry-over funds will be permitted.
Source: Chancellor’s Memo to Dean’s Council, June 14, 2000
Revised: April 7, 2000; June 5, 2013
Approved By: Chancellor Joel E. Anderson
Custodian: Office of the Chancellor