Iowa State students have a voice in spending university student computer fees. Students make up half of the Computation Advisory Committee, which governs the use of computer fees.

The committee was reorganized in 1990 by a “Memorandum of Understanding,” which now contains 12 faculty, 12 student and six ex officio members. The structure provides students with a say in how funds are allocated, said Dave Hopper, committee chair.

There is currently a university-wide base fee of $42 for all students. The fee is equally split into two funds, a central pool and a college pool fund, said Dr. George Strawn, Computation Center director.

Strawn said these fees have “paid dividends” over the years by exposing students to technology. Strawn favors computer technology in the classroom. “Information technology is becoming important no matter what your field,” Strawn said. He is “continuously thankful” for the establishment of this university-wide fee.

The money in the college pool goes directly to the individual colleges. The amount of which is determined by the number of majors and credit hours taught within each college.

The central pool funds equipment and services at labs, Parks Library and other public facilities at ISU. In addition, individual university organizations can make increased fee requests to the committee, said Hopper.

Originally, computer fees were assessed as individual course fees, Strawn said. This caused problems.

Instructors stayed away from using computer resources in courses to avoid the fees. Students shied away from courses with the extra fees, Strawn said.

Now that student fees are mandatory, students take the “I’m paying a fee, why not use computers in class?” attitude, said Strawn. This results in more exposure to and willingness to use computers in class for both the instructors and students.

The only departments which have made successful requests under the new funding structure are Management Information Systems, the Computer Science department and the College of Engineering.

Any lab that receives monies through the base fee must provide access to university students according to the percentage of funding, said Hopper. If a lab is 50 percent funded through the committee, the facility must be open to use by all students half the time.

The Computation Center Newsletter, available via Gopher, states that 41 percent of present computer lab equipment has been funded by student computer fees.

According to Hopper, the former course fee system was an accounting problem for the university. Each course had its own fee, creating an unmanageable amount of differing fees.

The university-wide fee system was also established to eliminate complexity. Hopper fears that this simple system may become as complicated as the former course fees if individual departments and colleges continue to make individual fee increase requests.

A proposal is in the works to prevent this complexity. It’s a multi-level system where a department or college can request a fund increase only as a multiple of the base fee. This, said Hopper, will simplify the accounting.

Proposals for computer fee funding must be approved by the computer fees committee, the provost’s office, the Special Fees Committee and the Iowa Board of Regents.

Approved requests go into effect the following year, Hopper said.