A UL student wants answers after getting his bill from University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The issue, how much students pay in tuition and fees. As one student shows us, fees can sometimes outweigh tuition costs.
"The fees haven't been that much. I was very frustrated."
The UL student, who wants to remain anonymous, took that frustration to social media, showing a breakdown of the cost of one semester of statistics.
"$1,382.00 total, $706 for the registration fees, and $675 for the tuition. That's expensive for not even having a book supplied.”
What do the fees go toward and why, as in this case, do they cost more than the actual tuition?
We took those questions to the VP of Student Enrollment Management, Dr. Dewayne Bowie.
“You'll see some schools that are more heavy on tuition, and they're less on fees. But when you combine the two together, they're comparable to the price they're paying at UL as well. Okay, so we've kept tuition as long as we could and as much will we kept tuition at bay and then move it as much,” said Bowie.
Those fees are spelled out on UL’s website, with its own link called explanation of fees. You'll see things like building use fees and technology fees. The university can assess, but then you'll see a long list of student voted on fees, like three separate charges for the union, the debate team, daycare, student council and the art museum.
Some students say it's a textbook example of reform needed when it comes to education expenses.
“The textbooks aren't cheap. College is expensive, but I went to SLCC two semesters ago and it was not. The fees weren't nearly as expensive.”
According to UL’s website when you look at tuition and fees, they are "The most affordable university in Louisiana." They cite the U.S. Department of Education's college affordability and transparency list.
We downloaded the latest data from that source and looked at the 14 four-year public universities in Louisiana.
In terms of cost, UL is second only to LSU when it comes to tuition and fees.
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