Schools
No HOPE for University of Georgia Fees
Changes in the HOPE Scholarship mean more UGA students will have to come up with hundreds of dollars each year on their own.
Forget about tuition.
New cuts to the HOPE scholarship mean HOPE scholar Ansley Hayes needs a loan just to cover more than $1,600 in university fees next year.
“They’ve been raising them kind of flippantly the last few years, because they knew HOPE was covering it,” said Hayes, a University of Georgia junior. She's an English major from Flowery Branch. “I want to know where my money’s going, because I don’t have a lot of it.”
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Statewide, rising tuition and enrollment are outpacing lottery sales, and lawmakers want to save HOPE from going broke. The measures sailed through both houses and were signed into law last week. Students with a 3.7 GPA and 1200 SAT will get full tuition but no money for books and fees. HOPE will now only pay 90 percent of tuition for lower-scoring HOPE scholars, and that percentage could change.
The table below displays student fee data from the UGA Fact Book. These are based on fall semester charges for full-time, residential undergraduates: Activity fees cover free or reduced admission to student programming such as lectures and movies; athletic fees provide free or reduced admission to athletic events; health fees pay for access to health care and programs; facilities charges cover basic user fees and help pay for the Ramsey Student Center and the Tate Center expansion; transportation fees provide free bus rides to students and support the Campus Transit System; technology charges pay for labs, computer upgrades and other technological services; the green fee supports the Office of Sustainability and pays for education and promotion of various green initiatives on campus such as rainwater harvesting; the institutional fee was passed as a temporary measure to help the university meet budget shortfalls.
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Yr. act. ath. health fac. trans. tech green instit. total 93-94 37.5 22.5 102 40.5 202.5 94-95 37.5 37.5 108 43.5 226.5 95-96 37.5 37.5 114 16 43.5 248.5 96-97 37.5 37.5 120 49.5 45 289.5 97-98 37.5 37.5 127.5 49.5 46.5 298.5 98-99 38 38 136 50 48 310 99-00 38 38 136 50 48 310 00-01 38 38 136 50 48 75 385 01-02 38 38 139 50 53 75 393 02-03 41 48 141 50 58 75 413 03-04 47 53 147 50 63 75 435 04-05 53 53 151 50 70 75 452 05-06 55 53 160 75 77 75 495 06-07 58 53 160 75 90 100 536 07-08 66 53 174 75 90 105 563 08-09 73 53 183 75 95 108 587 09-10 89 53 191 80 103 114 100 730 10-11 89 53 191 80 103 114 3 200 833
“Without the HOPE, Morgan will have to find a way to subsidize,” said Megan Thomas Davis, whose daughter Morgan is a junior at North Oconee High School.
Fees have soared since HOPE began covering those costs in 1993, and new cuts to the historic lottery-funded program will force even top-scoring students like Hayes to pay all the fees out of pocket. They stand at $833 a term for most UGA undergraduates, up from $202.50 in 1993, according the UGA Bursar’s Office.
Hayes will also need some help from lenders for tuition under the sweeping changes, and there are other students in more dire straits, she said. Some fees should be optional, she says.
Hayes needs the University Health Center for care but she adds, “I don’t participate in athletics.” The athletic fee is $53 per semester for 2010-2011.
The fees at issue help fund everything from the campus and city transit system to a new addition on the Tate Student Center. Under HOPE, new fees were created to fund technology upgrades and implement “green” initiatives such as rainwater harvesting. A new open-ended $200 “institutional” fee helps offset state economic woes.
HOPE had paid for roughly half of the miscellaneous charges, but lawmakers want students to foot the bill for all the extras now.
“It’s still a great deal, but how do you tell that to a parent who is already struggling this year to get their kid through school?” UGA Bursar Lisa McCleary said. “It’s a tough situation.”
Parents and students across Georgia are scrambling for information, and funds.
“I thought it was going to be (paying) for everything,” said Josh Warren, a home school student hoping to attend Athens Tech in 2012. “We’re just going to have to start saving.”
