I'm Having an (Angry) Catharsis

Spring Semester 2009
Description Charge Payment Refund Balance
Activity Fee-Spring $37.98
Art Fee - Spring $10.00
Athletic Fee-Spring $99.36
Athletic Complex Fee-Spring $40.02
Campus Comm Center Fee-Spring $72.00
Health Fee-Spring $83.00
International Educ Fee-Spring $2.00
UG Tuit 08-In State-Spring $84.00
Technology Fee-Spring $50.00
Institution Fee $100.00
Transportation Fee-Spring $51.00
Tuition-In State-Spring $720.00


Term Charges: $1,349.36


It's about that time when we start registering for Summer classes. I was figuring up how many classes I can afford to pay for, and pulled up this semester's bill for comparison. Looking at this reminded me how FRUSTRATED I am to be paying such an outrageous amount of money for TWO classes. The education system makes it so difficult to obtain a degree! I'm charged an athletic fee? For WHAT? I don't play sports, nor am I a fan. An athletic complex fee? I do not have TIME to go to UWG's gym because I have to spend every spare moment WORKING to afford tuition! A health fee - to pay the campus doctors wether I see them or not. A transportation fee. FIFTY-ONE DOLLARS! I could hire a cab every day to take me from class to class for the price I pay for the priviledge of riding the campus bus. And campus representatives believe we should feel so LUCKY to have all of these resources!! It would save me hundreds of dollars to do without. The fee that really gets me, though, is a new one for this semester. The INSTITUTION FEE. Of course. What establishment of higher education can survive without receiving their INSTITUTION FEE? Another one hundred of my dollars. I have asked many departments exactly why this fee is needed. What does it go towards? The closest thing I have encountered to an answer is "operating expenses". This is not satisfactory to me! Operating expenses can be saved by making less copies, printing fewer emails, not leaving the company vehicles running when parked. There is no excuse for the school to demand extra cash that I struggle for, and have no reason backing it. Clearly the administration is unconcerned with the number of students able to return to classes and finish the education they started. What a load of BULL!