No one likes increases in fees for anything. It’s not such a big surprise that there is so much resistance to the increases in tuition and fees for the 2009–10 school year at Portland State. But what is the real story behind these increases?
The cost of healthy students
No one likes increases in fees for anything. It’s not such a big surprise that there is so much resistance to the increases in tuition and fees for the 2009–10 school year at Portland State. But what is the real story behind these increases?
One big focus of these increases is the change in fees and policies for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC). At first glance, the fee increase doesn’t seem like a lot. The PSU Web site has the 2008 health fee listed at $167 for students, and the 2009 health fee listed at $177. Overall, fees have increased about $60 per term. So why the uproar?
First and foremost is the lack of reasoning behind the fee increase. Are students receiving more services, or are the services just costing more? With an estimated student population of over 25,000, the increase in fees means somewhere in the ballpark of $250,000 extra for SHAC per term.
Many students are also wondering why they aren’t able to opt out of this health insurance. If a working student has great health care coverage offered by their employer, why should they have to pay again for an additional program they will never use?
For independent programs, such as the graduate business student Master’s of International Management program, directors were given a choice: Either accept the policy instituted by PSU, or get no health insurance for students whatsoever. This puts administrators in a tough spot. Unfortunately, SHAC provided no comment on this seemingly strong-arm tactic.
Sadly, program directors are facing the brunt of student anger in this situation. Questions should be directed at PSU, and in particular SHAC, to justify the fee being forced to adopt this insurance policy. Repeated attempts to contact and receive information and comments from SHAC were unsuccessful.
Nathan Hahn, a graduate student at PSU, contacted SHAC for information on this fee increase, the policy behind it, and the reason students were not allowed to opt out. He was told that his program had voted to pay this fee. This is not entirely true—programs did choose whether or not to adopt the fee. However, what SHAC did not tell this student was that programs were offered an all-or-nothing deal: Either take the insurance for all, or no one gets coverage.
Hahn was also informed by SHAC that 60 percent of students at PSU would not have had coverage if it hadn’t been for this change. However, the findings to support this fact were not made available.
“Of course, my biggest concern is, since I receive health benefits from my employer as a full-time employee, I could never benefit from Aetna health care coverage,” Hahn said, “I currently pay for my all of my graduate studies out of my own pocket. I am borrowing around $40,000 to pay for this program. To have to spend another $1,000 or so on this fee sucks.” These are understandable concerns.
In the end, it’s just a big mess. Why the increase? Who actually decided that this increase was needed? Why aren’t students allowed to opt out? These are questions that, as of now, have not been answered by PSU or SHAC. Some transparency on the university’s part would go a long way too. So let’s see it, Portland State.
