New Fees are Added to Tuition as Parking Permits Disappear

Texas A&M International University students may have noticed an increase in their tuition and fees this semester, and have wondered why. There have been some changes this year that the university unveiled in its students' tuition. One of the most noticeable changes are that students are no longer required to purchase general access parking permits for the 2012-2013 school year. This could be financially affecting Dustdevils in more ways than one.

The subtle changes were not announced anywhere on the TAMIU website, nor were they added to the Student Handbook. However, if readers are wondering what the extra costs are, and where they accumulate, The Bridge has broken down that information for you.

Comparing last year's tuition and fees in contrast to this year's, The Bridge has found that these small changes have a great impact. For example, a student taking 15 hours would potentially be paying as much as $465 in extra fees per semester.

Not only are the charges rising per credit hour, but there is a new item being added to the list of fees. The Safety & Infrastructure (SI) fee has made its debut into this year's breakdown of charges. To define what the Safety & Infrastructure fee includes, The Bridge turned to The Tamiu 2012-2013 Catalog and found under The Explanation of Tuition and Fees its definition. It states, "This fee is charged at the rate of $19 per semester to provide police and security-related services along with safety initiatives."

Although it has been known that TAMIU has had security for the past couple of years, why are we now being charged an SI fee and what does the SI fee cover? Could this be in relation to the decision of removing general access parking permits? The Bridge reached out to the committee that approved the proposal, also know as the Student Government Association (SGA), but have yet to  receive any replies to our inquiries.

The Bridge also reached out to a source at the University Police Department (UPD) as to why the University decided to do away with paid parking permits, and an anonymous source told The Bridge, "Nobody wanted to pay."

When an official reply was received by email from a UPD representative, Cynthia Garcia, it included the total amount of permits purchased for general access from August 2011 to August 2012, which was 7,619. As for reserved spaces, the total purchased in the same period, was 634.

As was previously mentioned in the Parking Situation article, there are 2,600 general access and 300 reserved access parking spaces. Unfortunately, the breakdown of the parking permits by semester was not provided by the UPD when the Bridge requested this information. Thus, it cannot be determined how the limited spaces available impacted the sales.

There were 13,566 students enrolled for the Fall 2012 and Spring 2012 semester as outlined in TAMIU's enrollment reports. That would estimate that roughly 56% of the student body had purchase a general access parking permit.

So if students weren't paying for parking voluntarily, the charges were going to have to be paid somehow and it seems to have been added to the tuition and fees. These charges are the same for any enrolled student that either carpool, walk, or commute to campus.

Students at random were asked to voice their opinions about the fee being added to the tuition this year and one Dustdevil said, "I think that is really wrong because even though they do not have a car they are being charged for a parking permit...and it is not right." Another student claimed simply, "I didn't know."

The Bridge would like to know how you feel about the situation and would like you to participate by providing your feedback on The Bridge Newspaper's facebook page or by blogging on our digital edition.

(Judith Mae Aguilar and Tina Gomez may be reached at judithaguilar@dusty.tamiu.edu and cristinagomez@dusty.tamiu.edu)