Dental student fee to increase after 15 years

Students in the School of Dentistry have been training with equipment that is up to 25 years old because the budget hasn’t allowed for replacements since the 1990s.

Next year, they will receive replacement equipment — but it will come at a cost.

After the school’s equipment fees increase by about 20 percent next year, the school will be able to buy new and up-to-date equipment.

The large equipment fee increases — approved by the student fee advisory subcommittee — are long overdue, said Robert Foy, associate dean for financial affairs for the dentistry school.

The dental equipment fee will increase from $70 to $85 for dental hygienist students and $200 to $240 for dental students.

Foy requested the increase at a subcommittee meeting earlier this fall.

“Percentage-wise, it looks like a lot,” Foy said. “But it’s been frozen for 15 or 16 years.”

He said the increase is equivalent to raising the fees a little more than 1 percent each of those years.

Foy added that despite the increase, the dental school’s fees remain lower than most of its peer and nearby institutions.

“We’re still a great buy, and our students are aware of that.”

The subcommittee, which approved the dental fee increase on Oct. 12, only passes necessary fee increases, said Student Body Treasurer Shrija Ghosh.

Although fees for all students decreased this year, they will increase by 2.5 percent next year.

Ghosh said the increase was unavoidable.

“Yeah, it sucks that fees are going up,” she said.

“Obviously no one wants to pay more. But at the same time, students don’t want to lose bus service. Students don’t want to lose Wi-Fi across campus.

“At the end of the day you have15 to keep the cost and reward in balance.”

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp said the subcommittee members thoroughly researched all of the fee requests they received.

“The members of the subcommittee were very focused on balancing what fee increases were asked for with trying to keep fees down,” he said.

The subcommittee’s ultimate goal is to improve the experiences of the campus community while avoiding unnecessary fees, Crisp said.

“It’s a hard balance because there’s a reality that you cannot continue to expand services without dealing with the fact that these things have to be paid for,” he said.

“We could have a year where there are no fee increases, but that would result in a year … where there might be a deduction in services.”

Ghosh said the subcommittee also focused on making sure students will accept the increases.

Foy believes the dental school fee increases are for the good of the students.

“They will actually benefit from it,” he said.

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