Each semester students pay tuition and fees.
Student fees are divided among several categories on campus.
The largest amount of your student fees, which is $200, goes to wellness.
This helps to pay for the Recreation and Wellness Center and gives students access to the building and all of its equipment, said Mike Reynolds, executive director of Student Financial Services.
The next largest category is the Tiger Transit, which takes $158. The fee for the transit raised with tuition.
When tuition was raised to $389 per credit hour for in-state students for the 2017-2018 term, the student fees were $816, meaning the transit fee was $153. For the 2018-2019 term, tuition was raised $12, so the transit fee was
“All in all it’s not been a very big jump,” Reynolds said. “For 2016-2017, there was only a $4 increase, and that $4 was coming from the transit fee.”
Students can expect to see another small increase in student fees the next time tuition is increased to accommodate the increase in the Tiger Transit fee.
Reynolds stressed that this category is the easiest one for students to use every day.
Athletics is the next largest category. Reynolds said this fee allows all students to attend all home athletic events for free, except for football games.
Another part of the fees goes to the Student Center. Reynolds said when the Student Center was built, the students voted to incorporate a fee into the student fees to help pay for a new student center.
This fee began as an additional $80 in the student fees, today it is an additional $5.
This makes the total for this fee currently at $85. It will increase as time goes on because of the way the contract for the new Student Center was created.
“Make sure you utilize the Student Center,” Reynolds said. “There’s a lot of things you can benefit from in there, not only the food court but there are palaces you can go and study. And you’re paying for it, so utilize all of that.”
The last of the fees, which is $45,
SAPs, or Student Activity Portfolios, are organizations within the Office of Student Involvement that can and do, receive funding from student fees. The Black Student Union, SGA, Beat Bama Food Drive and Involvement Ambassadors are some examples of SAPs. For more information on SAPs, visit the Office of Student Involvement on the third floor of the student center or online at auburn.edu/involve/.
“Get involved,” Reynolds said. “Because you’re paying for all these things. Go to as many athletic events as you can, that you can get in free. That would be my advice because you should try to get as much use of what you’re paying for.”
Student fees were created during the 2013-2014 term. Beginning at $728, student fees have increased a total of $28 during those six years.
“The board has to give permission for that to occur [an increase in student fees],” Reynolds. “They want to keep costs down as much as possible. It’s always been that way.”
That $28 increase has mainly been from the Tiger Transit fee because tuition has increased, and the student center increase from the contract to build the new student center.
Student fee increases don’t come at the will of Student Financial Services.
“We have to be given direction from the board or the President’s Office,” Reynolds said.
A part of student fees cannot be waived because a student does not use it. For example, the $158 for the Tiger Transit fee cannot be waived because a student decided to not use the Tiger Transit that semester.
To get the biggest bang for your buck, the Recreation and Wellness Center is the best place to go.
“These fees are for every student,” Reynolds said. “Students will call and say ‘I don’t use the transit.’ Well, you should because you’re paying for it and there’s no way for me to monitor that.”
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