H. B. 4736
(By Delegates Frich, Hamilton and Trump)
[Introduced February 27, 2004; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18B-10-1 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to fees and other money collected
at state institutions of higher learning; financing the West
Virginia University rifle team with the support of the student
body.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18B-10-1 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. FEES AND OTHER MONEY COLLECTED AT STATE INSTITUTIONS
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
§18B-10-1. Enrollment, tuition and other fees at education
institutions; refund of fees.
(a) Each governing board shall fix tuition and other fees for
each school term for the different classes or categories of
students enrolling at each state institution of higher education under its jurisdiction and may include among such fees any one or
more of the following:
(1) Health service fees;
(2) Infirmary fees;
(3) Student activities, recreational, athletic and
extracurricular fees, which fees may be used to finance a students'
attorney to perform legal services for students in civil matters at
such institutions. Such legal services are limited to only those
types of cases, programs or services approved by the administrative
head of the institution where the legal services are to be
performed; and
(4) Graduate center fees and branch college fees, or either,
if the establishment and operations of graduate centers or branch
colleges are otherwise authorized by law.
(b) All fees collected at any graduate center or at any branch
college shall be paid into special funds and shall be used solely
for the maintenance and operation of the graduate center or branch
college at which they were collected. The commission shall set
tuition and fee goals for residents at each institution after
examining tuition and fees at the institutions' peers. Tuition and
fees for nonresident, undergraduate students shall, at a minimum,
cover actual instructional costs as determined in accordance with
commission policy. Students enrolled in undergraduate courses
offered at off-campus locations shall pay an off-campus instruction fee and may not be required to pay the athletic fee and the student
activity fee.
(c) The off-campus instruction fee shall be used solely for
the support of off-campus courses offered by the institution.
Off-campus locations for each institution shall be defined by the
appropriate governing board. The schedule of all fees, and any
changes therein, shall be entered in the minutes of the meeting of
the appropriate governing board, and the board shall file with the
legislative auditor a certified copy of such schedule and changes.
(d) In addition to the fees mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, each governing board may impose and collect a student
union building fee. All such building fees collected at an
institution shall be paid into a special student union building
fund for such institution, which is hereby created in the state
treasury. Pursuant to the provisions of section ten of this
article, the fees shall be used only for the following purposes:
(1) The construction, operation and maintenance of a student
union building or a combination student union and dining hall
building;
(2) The payment of the principal of and interest on any bond
issued to finance part or all of the construction of a student
union building or a combination student union and dining hall
building; or
(3) The renovation of an existing structure for use as a student union building or a combination student union and dining
hall building, all as more fully provided in section ten of this
article.
Any moneys in such funds not needed immediately for such
purposes may be invested in any such bonds or other securities as
are now or hereafter authorized as proper investments for state
funds.
(e) The boards shall establish the rates to be charged
full-time students enrolled during a regular academic term.
(1) For fee purposes, a full-time undergraduate student is one
enrolled for twelve or more credit hours in a regular term, and a
full-time graduate student is one enrolled for nine or more credit
hours in a regular term.
(2) Undergraduate students taking fewer than twelve credit
hours in a regular term shall have their fees reduced pro rata
based upon one twelfth of the full-time rate per credit hour, and
graduate students taking fewer than nine credit hours in a regular
term shall have their fees reduced pro rata based upon one ninth of
the full-time rate per credit hour.
(3) Fees for students enrolled in summer terms or other
nontraditional time periods shall be prorated based upon the number
of credit hours for which the student enrolls in accordance with
the above provisions.
(f) All fees are due and payable by the student upon enrollment and registration for classes except as provided for in
this subsection:
(1) The governing boards shall permit fee payments to be made
in up to three installments over the course of the academic term.
All fees shall be paid prior to the awarding of course credit at
the end of the academic term.
(2) The governing boards also shall authorize the acceptance
of credit cards or other payment methods which may be generally
available to students for the payment of fees. The governing
boards may charge the students for the reasonable and customary
charges incurred in accepting credit cards and other methods of
payment.
(3) If a governing board determines that a student's finances
are affected adversely by a legal work stoppage, it may allow the
student an additional six months to pay the fees for any academic
term. The governing board shall determine on a case-by-case basis
if the finances of a student are affected adversely.
(g) The rule related to assessment, payment and refund of fees
including refund of fees upon voluntary or involuntary withdrawal
from classes, shall comply with all applicable state and federal
laws and shall be uniformly applied throughout the system.
(h) In addition to the other fees provided in this section,
each the governing board
of West Virginia University may impose,
collect and distribute a fee to be used to finance
a nonprofit,
student-controlled public interest research group the West Virginia
University rifle team if the students at the institution
demonstrate support for the increased fee in a manner and method
established by that institution's elected student government. The
fee may not be used to finance litigation against the institution.
(i) Institutions shall retain tuition and fee revenues not
pledged for bonded indebtedness or other purposes in accordance
with a revised tuition policy adopted by the respective governing
boards and approved by the commission. The revised tuition policy
shall:
(1) Provide a basis for establishing nonresident tuition and
fees;
(2) Allow institutions to charge different tuition and fees
for different programs;
(3) Provide that a board of governors may propose to the
commission a mandatory auxiliary fee under the following
conditions:
(A) The fee shall be approved by the commission and either the
students at the institution or the Legislature before becoming
effective;
(B) Increases may not exceed previous state subsidies by more
than ten percent;
(C) The fee may be used only to replace existing state funds
subsidizing auxiliary services such as athletics or bookstores;
(D) If the fee is approved, the amount of the state subsidy
shall be reduced annually by the amount of money generated for the
institution by the fees and that amount shall be returned to
general revenue. All state subsidies for the auxiliary services
shall cease five years from the date the mandatory auxiliary fee
was implemented;
(E) The commission shall certify to the Legislature by the
first day of October in the fiscal year following implementation of
the fee, and annually thereafter, the amount of fees collected for
each of the five years.
(4) Establish methodology, where applicable, to ensure that,
within the appropriate time period under the compact, community and
technical college tuition rates for community and technical college
students in all independently accredited community and technical
colleges will be commensurate with the tuition and fees charged by
their peer institutions.
(j) A penalty may not be imposed by the commission upon any
institution based upon the number of nonresidents who attend the
institution unless the commission determines that admission of
nonresidents to any institution or program of study within the
institution is impeding unreasonably the ability of the resident
students to attend the institution or participate in the programs
of the institution. The institutions shall report annually to the
commission on the numbers of nonresidents and such other enrollment information as the commission may request.
(k) Tuition and fee increases of the governing boards are
subject to rules adopted by the commission pursuant to subsection
(a), section four, article one-b of this chapter.
(1) A governing board may propose tuition and fee increases of
up to nine and one-half percent for undergraduate resident students
for any fiscal year except that proposed tuition and fees increases
for community and technical colleges may be up to four and three
quarters percent. Any proposed increase shall be approved by the
commission. The commission shall examine individually each request
from a governing board for an increase. Approval for any increase
shall be based on a determination by the commission that the
institution has met the following conditions:
(A) Has maximized resources available through nonresident
tuition and fee charges to the satisfaction of the commission;
(B) Is consistently achieving the benchmarks established in
the compact of the institution pursuant to the provisions of
article one-a of this chapter;
(C) Is continuously pursuing the statewide goals for
post-secondary education and the statewide compact established in
articles one and one-a of this chapter;
(D) Is implementing the efficiency measures required by
section nine, article five of this chapter;
(E) Has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the commission that an increase will be used to maintain high-quality programs at
the institution;
(F) Has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the commission
that the institution is making adequate progress toward achieving
the goals for education established by the southern regional
education board; and
(G) To the extent authorized, will increase by up to five
percent the available tuition and fee waivers provided by the
institution. The increased waivers may not be used for athletics.
(2) In making a determination on tuition and fee proposals,
the commission also may take into consideration whether the per
capita income in an institution's service region exceeds the state
per capita income. For the purposes of this subdivision only:
(A) Service region is the county in which the main campus of
the institution is located and the contiguous West Virginia
counties; and
(B) Per capita income for the service region shall be computed
using the most current annual, county-level per capita income data
published by the United States department of commerce, bureau of
economic analysis, weighted by the compatible year population
estimates published by the United States census bureau.
(3) This section may not be construed to require equal
increases among institutions or to require any level of increase at
an institution.
(4) The commission shall report to the legislative oversight
commission on education accountability regarding the basis for each
approval or denial as determined using the criteria established in
subdivision (1) of this subsection.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the governing
board of West Virginia University to impose, collect and distribute
a fee to be used to finance the West Virginia University rifle team
if the student government shows support for the measure.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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