By fall 2022, full-time undergraduate students can expect an estimated $229 tuition rate increase per semester, according to Kathryn Funk-Baxter, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer.
A town hall meeting was held Oct. 27 in Patriots’ Casa to discuss the proposed increases in tuition rates and give students an open forum to express concerns to the administration.
The new tuition rates are composed of a 5% increase to the current athletics fee, a proposed $100 student union fee and a 2.7% increase to account for the ongoing inflation rate of the U.S. dollar.
Students voted on an athletics fee of $10 per credit hour in 2019, and the 5% increase was approved by the Student Government Association Oct. 19.
SGA’s Speaker of the Senate Iris Castillo said the $100 student union fee would help fund a Student’s Union building that could host student organizations, an event center or fun activities like a bowling alley.
This $100 student union fee was proposed by the SGA but will have to be approved by students in a vote in spring 2022.
For more details, students are invited to the next SGA meeting 5:30-7 p.m. Nov. 2 in Room 173 of the Science and Technology Building
The extra revenue from the athletics fee will help Texas A&M University-San Antonio meet the requirements for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics status by adding two more sports.
The NAIA is a college athletics association, similar to the NCAA, but for small colleges.
The university is highly considering adding men’s and women’s cross-country to the other four sports categories, said Athletics Director Darnell Smith.
The university currently has softball, men’s golf, men’s soccer and women’s soccer as NAIA required sports.
About 20 students attended the town hall. Not all of them were happy with the proposed tuition increase.
Computer information systems sophomore Anneka King brought up her concerns with the university spending money to expand the athletics department when it can’t house the current student population they have.
King said it was unfair that she should be paying a fee that will only be “benefitting the students on athletic scholarships or attracting new students” rather than focusing on the university’s primary goal of educating students.
Funk-Baxter responded to King’s, and other similarly voiced concerns, by explaining that A&M-San Antonio is looking into proposals of building new dorm rooms, but the current bid prices are about 25% higher than normal due to supply shortages.
According to Funk-Baxter funding for auxiliary buildings, like dorm rooms, can only be raised by profits made from charging rent, not from the legislative money given to the university by the state.
Student housing is an issue the university is working to address but these specific state legislative regulations make things more challenging, Funk-Baxter explained.
For more details about the proposed fees, students are invited to the next SGA meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 2 in Room 173 of the Science and Technology Building.