Case Technology Tax

I applaud Greg Szorc's efforts to point out the truth behind the Case Technology Fee that is being levied upon the whole student body, undergraduate, graduate, and professional, next academic year.

The fee will increase from $400 to $425. Instead of limiting the fee to on-campus undergraduates, it will now cover undergraduate commuters, graduate, and professional students.

The original intent of the tech tax was to cover the costs of networking equipment for students. This makes obvious sense why only on-campus students had to pay it. Lev Gonick has stated that the revenues from this "fee" will cover a broad range of ITS services. It's short-speak for general operating budget.

Applying the one fee with no specific criteria is unfair to students. The usage levels of an on-campus student versus a commuter student is quite different, and places an additional burden on the off-campus student since he or she would have their own Internet connection setup. The windfall from such an increase is expected to generate at least $4 million in revenue for ITS.

Also, on-campus undergraduates were told in the beginning that the fee was to help cover the cost of all networking equipment in the SER rooms in the residence halls. This was part of the building of our gigabit network. The fee did not cover the Internet pipe or support. These features would be covered by the University budget through ITS.

Thus, the original intent of the Tech Fee has changed, very likely with no student input in the matter.

Another problem is whether this Technology Fee will lead to other "separate" fees being levied upon the students. Only the Student Activity Fee was a fee created and voted by students. Will there be a new student center fee? A new dining tax to support the Silver Spartan? Intramural fee for participating? Yep, it's all speculation, but it can happen.

The University could be doing this just to avoid giving students another double-digit increase in tuition.

Commuter students should feel upset since they now have to pay the University ISP in addition to their local ISP. Hmm, another way to pressure them to move on-campus?

More details to come...

Case Forum - IT Tech Fee Coming to All Students