you're not worth an additional 62%, san jose state

May 17, 2006 10:17 AM

LibrarianFilter: Is this even legal? My school has just announced they will be increasing student fees by over 60% for the next semester. I've sent an email to the director, but what can I, or other students, reasonably do to combat this? Do I have to drop out of school because I can't afford an additional $5,000? Full text of the announcement is below.

From: Ken Haycock Mailed-By: listproc.sjsu.edu

To: [e-mail]
Date: May 16, 2006 6:21 PM
Subject: [SLISADMIN:208] Course Fee Increase
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Special Session Fee Increase

Due to increased demand on services and resources and the need for improved infrastructure and support, the San Jose Campus Fee Advisory Committee, with student, faculty and administrative representation, has recommended a fee increase for MLIS courses offered through special session. This recommendation has been approved by the President. I want to inform you as early as possible for your own planning.

The School had reached the unusual and untenable position of charging more for state-supported students (regular session) than for self-supporting students (special session). The fee increase redresses this imbalance and provides support for critical needs in the School. It also addresses a fiscal imbalance insofar as we were beginning to operate in a loss position due to new charges being assigned to the School for University services.

Through the use of additional funds, the School will be adding faculty such that student advising will be improved. We know this is an issue from the more than one hundred students who have already completed exit interviews with us. Each student will now be assigned to a faculty advisor who will stay with them through the program and support them specifically through the new culminating experience. In addition we will be adding assistant directors to focus on three critical areas: distance learning, marketing and development and research and professional practice. In support for distance learning there will be new mandatory training for all new faculty in distance learning technologies and an improved student technology orientation program; in marketing and development we will vigorously pursue new scholarships and awards for students; in professional practice, we will develop professional experience courses and structured internships with newly designated “teaching libraries”.

These improvements are long overdue and could not be put in place without these additional monies.

The fee increase will take effect for Fall 2006 courses. The cost per unit will move from $215 to $349, alternately, per three unit course from $645 to $1,047; alternately, for the full degree from $9,030 to $14,658. While these fees increases seem large, and they are, please bear in mind that our new fees are still the lowest in the country for out of state students and among the lowest for in-state students. We are proud to be, and continue to be, among the low-cost service providers on the continent but need to guarantee quality and improve our profile as well if we expect employers to seek our graduates.

The fee for the Executive MLIS program has been increased somewhat beyond this level. This information will be communicated to each current and entering student this week. The School pledges to provide smaller classes and additional support for these students as a result.

I know that this is not good news for you. I can anticipate and appreciate your concern and anxiety. I can only assure you that you are making a good investment in a wonderful career. From our end, we need to ensure that the quality of your education is high and that this is recognized by academics and professionals in the field alike.

--Ken

****************************************

Dr. Ken Haycock, Professor and Director

School of Library and Information Science

San Jose State University

408.924.2490; fax: [phone]

http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/

posted by booknerd to education (16 comments total)

I had a long, very unhelpful response that I'll try to make a little quicker. School's don't operate like businesses and feel that for the most part they can do whatever they want because of "rising costs" and vague promises of improvement. A lot of this goes to the very, very top heavy structure of universities and associated beauracracy.

I ran into something very similar and had some luck in restricting further fee increases by pointing out that the improvements never happened or were marginal and not proportional to the 200% enormous increases. Expect to be given BS lines and weird logic. The best you can do is get a lot of students to e-mail the director, parents too. If the fees are legitimate and not someone's pet project my bet is that they will disappear the following year. I would say without a doubt you will have to pay the fees this year at hte very least. Perhaps someone had a different, better experience?
posted by geoff. at 10:41 AM on May 17, 2006

Unless they promised you when you enrolled that they wouldn't increase tuition, I don't see why they can't do it. How does the tuition compare to other MLS schools in the same tier?
posted by Saucy Intruder at 10:58 AM on May 17, 2006

How far are you in the program? If you're halfway through for example, you're only paying $2814 more. I know that doesn't solve anything, but it may not be as bad as you think.

When you're operating at a loss there are a few options: 1: bring in more students (not viable if you don't have the resources to serve students), 2: cut costs (sounds like that is not an option due to the "increased demand" and the university charging the school for services), and finally, 3: raise costs (what they are doing). From the letter, at least there was a committee with student representation, and it sounds like you are at least getting value added for your additional outlay.

I've seen my education or related costs go up with the "weird logic and BS lines" that geoff speaks of, but the director laid out a number of fairly solid reasons and initiatives, so unfortunately, I think you might have less of a case in that regard.

Finally, as there is a greater emphasis on scholarships, perhaps you can get one of those? Or there are always student loans. I don't know what the going rate is for a library science degree these days, but if they are still one of the lowest-cost options around, you could consider yourself lucky you got a deal thus far.
posted by ml98tu at 11:00 AM on May 17, 2006

sjsu is still the lowest cost option around for northern california for an mls. i've been looking into library school, and i know sjsu is going through a transition phase with a new dean, lots of new students, and a slightly different program. due to certain events, i missed the application deadline for sjsu, but am looking at other distance learning programs which cost more than twice as much as sjsu for the full degree. drexel's $35,000. financial aid for grad students is better, but not great.
posted by kendrak at 11:11 AM on May 17, 2006

It's a state school, so you can try political action. Maybe you should complain to your state senator or representative? There are elections coming up, and they might be more than willing to sign on to a popular cause that could give them exposure among students. How about complaining to your student government body? Your local newspapers?

There's a lot in the news these days about how the UC system has seriously blown it on their budgets - maybe state school administrators would find ways to pull back on fee increases if they knew CSU schools might be subject to bad publicity about it.
posted by jasper411 at 11:16 AM on May 17, 2006

Well, I'm in Southern California, and the SJSU program is now only slightly cheaper than the (much better) program at UCLA. I chose SJSU because it was 2/3 of the cost, now it's nearly the same. I'm only one semester in, and I'm already swamped in student loans from my undergrad degree, so I was looking for a lower cost option. They seem like they're trying to command the fees of a high-quality school without offering the quality to back it up. I'll be paying for a higher quality education, when it won't actually be a higher quality for several more years, if at all.

It's not that I wasn't expecting fee increases. They're common. It's just that I've never heard of a fee increase of this magnitude, and I never imagined it would be possible. It's hard to believe it's legal to rope people into a program on false pretenses then jack the costs up so much.
posted by booknerd at 11:18 AM on May 17, 2006

In that case maybe you can look into transferring? It doesn't sound like they intentionally roped you in only to raise the prices and snare you. Perhaps your class can appeal to be grandfathered into the new rate?
posted by ml98tu at 11:28 AM on May 17, 2006

Ungh. That blows. I'd transfer out if I were you, especially if you can't get any sort of discount on your upcoming classes. Your point about going from SJSU to UCLA is a good one that should be brought to the attention of whomever will listen. Heck, contact UCLA and see what they'd say to a bunch of SJSUs transfering in!

Still, you're paying 66%-75% of what I paid for my MLS. While I'm sure some of my fellow Mefibrarians will disagree, much of library school is about paying for the degree and the name that's on said degree makes a difference.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:08 PM on May 17, 2006

i think this is part of the school's growing pains. i know they've seen a huge increase in enrollment and rely on web-based courses to help with spacing issues. they probably had to raise tuition.

i'd be interested to see if students will sue over this. i know it's happened at the uc level, though not much has come of it. i guess uc tuition won't rise much more, but there's enough waste to make anybody sick.
posted by kendrak at 12:09 PM on May 17, 2006

In Ontario there is a limit on how much the school can raise tuition. You may want to look into that, but I am guessing no such limits exist in San Jose. You can see if there were any promises made about how much your program would cost.
posted by chunking express at 12:31 PM on May 17, 2006

This is jus tone tactic, but pass it on to
- the library blogosphere (any web links I should know about?). Contact other bloggers, make a blog-scene
- the American Library Association "you told me I should go to library school and now they do THIS"
- the regents of the school "this is not how you run a businesss"
- your elected representatives in CA, as many as you can get to

When you talk to these people, be clear, be sensible and have an outcome in mind. Something like "While I understand that cost increases are necessary I'd suggest doing something so that people don't get hit all at once. How about phasing them in over four years so that students already in the program don't take a huge hit after having so much invested in the program"

Hammer home that outcome and, as geoff. says, don't just take their statement that fees/costs went up so they have to pass the expenses on to you. Don't whine and above all don't act like it is going to kill you. They made a choice and now you have to make a choice whether to stay with the program or not, and in the meantime you can see if you can do anything to affect their decision. In my opinion that is a crappy thing to do to students who are in a multi-year program and I think telling them so is totally appropriate.
posted by jessamyn at 1:04 PM on May 17, 2006

Thanks for the pep talk, guys. I contacted my representatives. I emailed the Program Director, Ken Haycock, and copied the University President on my email to him (remember, he said the President approved this as well, so I figured he was partially responsible), but Dr. Haycock was very um... annoyed that I copied the President as well. He was rude, actually.

I will contact blogs when I get home from work this evening. I've posted to the student list serv (and of course, all of the other agitated students have done the same). Contacting the ALA is another good idea, I will do that next. My suggestion to Dr. Haycock was to phase in the fee increases 5-10% at a time over each semester so that current students didn't get hit so hard, but he blew me off.

Contacting UCLA regarding accepting SJSU transfer students is also a good idea. I haven't been very impressed with the quality of the instruction, or the administration, of the SJSU program thus far, but I was happy with the cost until now.
posted by booknerd at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2006

Any suggestions on who I should contact at ALA? Their staff list is a bit daunting.
posted by booknerd at 1:28 PM on May 17, 2006

Here are a few places to get started

Office for Accreditation Staff

Karen O'Brien
Director
312-280-2434
[e-mail]

Renée McKinney
Assistant Director
312-280-2436
[e-mail]

Steven F. Giese
Program Officer
312-280-2435
[e-mail]

I'd also write a letter to American Libraries (signed by a buncha folks) and to Library Journal. You could also contact the California Library Association andmaybe get in touch with your ALA Councilor who should be appointed by them and would be your "representative" at a national level. Go through challens first, but if you hit a wall, drop me an email, I might have some more suggestions/email addresses.
posted by jessamyn at 1:38 PM on May 17, 2006

Also, see if a local paper is covering this story, and urge them to do so, write a letter to the editor, offer quotes from a student involved, etc. At the ALA, you might try Larra Clark ([e-mail]) in the Press Office there and say you are contacting the media in SJ to cover this story. She might put you in touch with someone at Library Journal who is covering the story. Also try contacting the Chronicle of Higher Education. The more negative publicity the better.
posted by mattbucher at 1:42 PM on May 17, 2006

I think the UC Berkeley / Boalt law students sued over fee increases. Might be worth Googling.
posted by salvia at 11:13 PM on May 17, 2006