The University of Minnesota’s website breaks down its $365.90 student services fee to pennies on the dollar. No school in the west division of the Mid-American Conference provides the same level of financial transparency to its students on its website.
At Eastern Michigan University, the student fees are explained in broad categories: $24.40 per credit hour for a “general fee,” $11.55 per credit hour for a “technology fee,” and $3.45 per credit hour for a “student union fee.”
On a separate page, these fees are explained briefly, but a thorough allocation of where each cent of those fees goes is not available.
EMU Chief Financial Officer John Lumm estimated that mandatory fees contribute roughly $25 million and course fees contribute roughly $14 million to the school’s overall budget.
Darnecha Zachary, a freshman at EMU, does not think EMU is doing enough to inform students what revenue from student fees helps to fund.
“I have no idea where my money goes,” she said.
Lumm said he was under the impression that the online tuition and fee calculator had been meeting students’ need for transparency.
“That’s what we’re trying to do but it sounds like it’s not meeting expectations,” he said.
Lumm said that the administration is always looking for ways to be more transparent with its students but doubted whether a breakdown of the allocation of student fees to cents-on-the dollar would be feasible.
“I don’t know that we have the capability to do each cent,” he said.
President of Student Government, Jelani McGadney, said that while he thinks transparency is important, he understands that an institution as large as EMU would have trouble accounting for every penny.
“In a complex organization like this, knowing where every single cent of yours is going, you don’t necessarily know,” he said.
According to the University of Minnesota’s website, its student population is more than 60,000.
Eastern Michigan’s student population amounts to more than 23,000 individuals.
Katie Hale, who transferred to EMU from Oakland community college, said she would like the school to inform students more thoroughly where their money is going.
“I would like to know that my money is being put to good use for my
education and I don’t really know that for sure,” Hale said.
Lumm said the administration is willing to provide information to students, but doesn’t always know what information is important to students.
“There’s no resistance to doing this,” he said. “It’s just a matter of what information are people interested in.”
Hale said that if students are forced to pay the fees, they have the
right to know where their money is going, and the university should take that right seriously.
“It’s our money that we’re putting into the school and we’re trusting them with.”
