From: B. Oliver Walter [OWalter@uwyo.edu]

Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 5:28 PM

To: A&S Heads

Cc: Myron B. Allen; Nicole Susan Ballenger

Subject: Course fees

As you know the University is requesting a significant increase in the University’s support budget (Instructional Excellence) this year. This request is in response to the many departments that have communicated to us and to Academic Affairs about the need to increase these budgets.  Myron believes that new course fees would muddy the water and might endanger this legislative request.  Therefore, those of you who are preparing new course fees, please send them to us—I would hope we could use them as part of the justification for distributing a legislatively approved support budget increase.  However, we will not forward them to Old Main this fall.  Here are the exceptions:

1. Inflation driven increases in existing fees—small increases are better than waiting for several years and then asking for a major increase.  For instance, we might ask for a $2 increase in the A&S Computer fee.

2. Courses with major field trip components.

I also believe we could justify student fees for the debate team and the marching band.   Debate is an intercollegiate competition and conceptually I see no difference between it and football. The marching band exists to support athletics and if we have student fees to support athletics, a student fee to support the marching band seems legitimate to me.  Both debate and marching band fees would have to go through ASUW rather than the college.

So, all of the work many of you have done on the course fees has been beneficial if, for no other reason, than that we have been able to communicate a convincing message, one that Academic Affairs has been responsive to.