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Special Course or Program Fees

The amounts charged for tuition and fees usually cover course related expenses.  However, some courses have extraordinary expenses associated with them and, in such cases and pursuant to Boise State Policy #4200, Boise State charges additional fees in amounts approximate the added instructional or laboratory costs.  Examples include expendable supplies or materials, special services or facilities offered, access to specialized computer laboratory services, equipment use and course related student travel and lodging.

The following serves as a quick reference for procedures and deadlines to add, edit or remove course fees.  First read Boise State Policy #4200 for full details of policies and procedures regarding approval of special course or program fees.

 Application

Academic units that wish to propose a special course or program fee or to increase, permanently decrease or remove a fee must submit one application package in paper form with the following sections to the Provost:

  • in January for fees to be implemented in the subsequent fall semester;
  • in September for fees to be implemented the subsequent spring/summer semester.

Special Course fees with a like purpose shall be submitted on the same Special Course Fee Request form. Special Course fees with differing purposes shall be submitted on separate forms:

  1.  A completed Special Course Fee Request form (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FORM HAS CHANGED). To access the form, right click the link and choose “Open form incognito window.” You will see the following image.Screen shot of the form
  2. A detailed written proposal and justification that contains the following information for each course affected (or each group of courses similarly affected) by the proposed fees:
    • A detailed description of the expenses that make necessary the charging of a fee;
    • A projection, based on past and/or expected enrollments, of income from the proposed fee;
    • A description of the proposed distribution of the collected fees among general classes of expenditures, e.g., to staffing, to equipment, to field trips, and to expendables;
    • An explanation as to why department funds are insufficient to fund the described expenses. The Office of the Provost will forward the application packet to the Dean’s Council which, in turn, will forward its recommendation to the Executive team. The Dean’s Council and/or the Executive Team may request further clarification of proposals or may request modification of proposals.
    • The Academic Unit will establish a separate local Fund – Department – Cost Center (FDCC) for each approved Special Course fee request.  The New Cost Center Segment Request Form  to establish a new local Department Cost Center ID number is found on UFS Segment Maintenance Requests website.  This established FDCC is entered into the Special Course Fee Request form.

 After the Approval

The Provost will notify the Dean and Student Financial Services immediately of all special course or program fees that have been approved.

Student Financial Services will notify the Provost and Deans when changes are updated in the Course Fee database.

The Academic Unit will run a Validation Report to confirm that the approved course fee is the correct amount.

Annual Report

At the end of each academic year, the Academic Unit prepares a Special Course or Program Fee Annual report that includes:

  1.  Special Course or Program Fee Annual Report – expenditures for which those fees were spent.
  2.  The Discuss and Certify Page – plans for remaining balance, if any (e.g., accruing funds for a major purchase). This page must be signed by the Department Chair.
  3.  Revenues – income secured from course fees.

Instructions for creating the annual report as well as a Sample Report are provided for reference.

That report is forwarded to the Dean who, in turn:

  1.  Reviews all reports to ascertain that the amount of fees collected is justified and that the expenditures of funds are for acceptable purposes;
  2.  Signs the Discuss and Certify Page and add the report to the Master List of approved special course fees;
  3.  Reviews the Master List annually to determine if course fees shall be removed;
  4.  Submits a copy of the Master List with copies of the Annual Reports to the Provost on or before September 15th of each year.

 Additional Resources