Get the facts on student fees

New clothes, textbooks and tuition all contribute to students being short of cash after a new semester begins. The money students pay for fees, however, really seems to bother them.

"This is ridiculous," said Curtis Covey, a freshman Business Management student at Palo Alto College. "After tuition, we still have to pay fees."

The tuition for 13 in-district hours at Palo Alto College is $312, and student fees are an additional $121.50 for a grand total of $433.50. Student fees make up 28 percent of this total cost, and include a general fee, instructional technology fee, library fee, accident insurance fee, and a change fee.

One fee that Palo Alto charges is a general fee, which is set out across the Alamo Community College District (ACCD). This fee takes care of all miscellaneous expenses and the overhead it costs to run the college. For this fee, students are charged either $60 or $65 depending on how many hours they are taking.

Another fee is the instructional technology fee. This fee helps support on-campus labs, such as the language, science and computer labs, by upgrading computers, buying new software, and purchasing high-tech equipment.

Palo Alto receives about $336,000 in instructional technology fee monies, said Dr. L. S. Soliz, Executive Vice President. Because of this fee, Palo Alto was able to get the new Mac Lab and upgrade the other computer labs on campus.

The library also charges a fee. This fee goes to help upgrade the computers in the library and maintain the library collection for the students.

"It is good that we have this fee," said Justin Saunders, a student at Palo Alto College. "It allows us to get better materials, and have more access to more resources"

Every student at all ACCD campuses is charged a student accident insurance fee. This is a legal requirement, and this insurance covers students at all ACCD-sponsored events.

There is even a change fee, which is charged when a student requests a change in their schedule. This is only charged if the school had nothing to do with a class the student needed to add or drop.

Palo Alto College gets its funding from contact hours, taxes, fees and tuition. If these four revenue streams don't break even with the budget the district gives Palo Alto, then Palo Alto is forced to cut back.

Although students may not like to pay the extra money, student fees are necessary so that Palo Alto can provide the best education possible.