Monday, April 4, 2011
Utah Statesman The
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Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com
Differential tuition asks students to pay more in three career fields
By MEGAN BAINUM assistant news editor
THE HUNTSMAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS is one academic college on campus that requires its students to pay differential tuition. Students impacted by differential tuition pay an extra fee per class on top of the general tuition amount. CARL R. WILSON photo
Differential tuition is a “solution of last resort when all of the other arguments fail,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers. This cost-per-credit expense is applied to certain classes above standard tuition for a university. A raise in the business school’s differential tuition was approved in February, and students in this school will pay an additional $15 per credit hour beginning in fall of 2011 for upper division courses, which will reach a total of $97 per credit hour in 2014. Graduate students in the business school will see a $50 increase per credit hour to the current $199 they pay in differential tuition. It will increase another $50 each year for the next two years. The additional student costs are needed for faculty and staff salaries, operating expenses, student services and programs and expenditures such as marketing, said Ken Snyder, dean of the business school. More than a decade ago, USU implemented differential tuition in the undergraduate and graduate courses in the business school and the college of engineering, as well as graduate programs in the department of communicative disorders and deaf education.
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Nassirian said charging differential tuition is much more common at the graduate level, but charging undergraduates differential tuition can be problematic. He said by charging more for certain classes, students may skip out on their dreams of becoming an engineer or businessman simply because it costs more. He said it is important that undergraduate classes be priced evenly so students can pursue their dreams without having to worry about monetary differences. “For some people the added costs might not be manageable, so it makes students pick majors not on the basis of interest, but on what it might cost them,” Nassirian said. Nassirian did credit those making the decision to implement differential tuition, saying tuition pricing is a very agonizing decision and it is not anyone’s first thought to “jack up tuition.” Concerns about not being able to branch
out and try different classes is something USU’s Executive Vice President Raymond Coward said doesn’t apply to “the vast majority of courses that charge differential tuition.” He said very few lower-division courses charge even a $2 per-credit fee. Business senator Skyler Jenks said students who want to try business classes won’t usually be taking the 3000-level courses that have differential tuition attached. Introducing differential tuition on undergraduate courses results in a change in student behavior, Nassian said. “The point is you really want to give as broad as choice of major as possible and let their interests define where they end up,” he said. Coward said since USU began charging differential tuition, there has been no decrease in enrollment and students see the increase in fees as a need to improve their quality of education. “Many students understand that the differential tuition is an investment in the quality of their education and their future,” Coward said. Jenks said he has seen the difference differential tuition has brought to the teaching staff at the business school. He said he has been here since 2006 and over that time the improvement of teachers has been drastic. “Hands down I agree with differential
- See COST, page 3
CAPS offers help to students affected by impulsive behavior By KATE MARSHALL staff writer
More than 2 million people were brought into emergency rooms in the U.S. in 2010 because of drug abuse. Binge eating affected more than 5 million people. Americans spend more than $13 billion a year on various forms of pornography. These are just a few statistics from the USU Health and Wellness Center that demonstrate the impact human impulses have on individuals. Chris Chapman, a psychology resident at Utah State, is conducting a seminar through Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) on April 4 in TSC Room 310B from 9:30-11 a.m. on behaving consciously and controlling impulses. “When people get into addictive cycles or behaviors, they stop becoming conscious, they just do them automatically,” he said. “We want to help students get things under control, whether it’s drugs or alcohol, eating disorders, pornography or anything they feel is unhealthy.” Chapman describes the impulses as “necessary,” and said without them, people wouldn’t feel the need to procreate, eat, exercise and destress their lives. However, dependence often takes the impulse too far, and an addiction may form. Jesse Crosby, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, has spent his years at Utah State researching these psychological problems, as well as treatments for them, with psychology professor Michael Twohig. He said when following an impulse, it’s something done without thinking of the consequences. The immediate rewards are positive, but the long term consequences are negative. There is a difference between an impulse and a behavior. “People try and stop the impulses, but that is impossible – all you can do is control the way you react to them. Just because you have an impulse it doesn’t mean you have to respond to it,” he said. The seminar will cover a variety of topics such as alcohol/drug abuse, pornography, overeating and overexercising, sex and procrastination. “People start excessively drinking or using drugs, sometimes
- See ADDICTION, page 4
Inside This Issue
REBEL FIGHTERS STAND near the front line east of Brega, Libya, Sunday. Cache Valley Peace Works gathered outside the Logan Tabernacle, Friday, in hopes of creating awareness about the violence in Libya. The Libyan rebel movement controls the country’s eastern half and wants to topple the regime of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi. AP photo
Locals react to violence in Libya By LIS STEWART staff writer
Members of the Cache Valley Peace Works gathered with signs, a flag, and staunch opinions in front of the Logan Tabernacle, Friday evening, to advocate for peaceful solutions to the conflict in Libya. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi came under renewed international pressure in February when he reacted with violence against rebels in his country. On March 18 the United Nations Security Council authorized a no-fly zone and military action over Libya. Air and sea strikes from American and European forces began the next day. Dave Powelson, a long-time member of Cache Valley Peace Works, said in the beginning, the U.S. was like a policeman breaking up a fight. Now, it has taken sides, and that will only create more problems, he said. “Obama was correct in getting the UN to endorse this, and then acting as an agent of the UN to separate the sides I think was fine,” Powelson said, “and now, I think the United States has gone way beyond that.” President Barack Obama defended the military action with Libya
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on March 28 in an address from Washington, D.C., and made an assurance that the U.S. role will be limited. He called Gadhafi a tyrant and said in Libya’s past Gadhafi hanged people in the streets and killed more than 1,000 people in a single day. “We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world,” Obama said. While Powelson said he does not support Gadhafi lashing out against the rebels, he said the rebels also went too far. Violent actions escalate into lasting feuds. “Ultimately, warfare causes reaction,” he said. “Although sometimes violence can have a desirable effect in the short term, in the long term, and it is always the wrong way to go.” The Peace Works has been consistent since forming in 2005. Every Friday at 5:30 p.m. they assemble outside the Logan Tabernacle. They stand with their signs advocating peaceful solutions to world problems. During these 30 minutes, as the group stood in the fading sunlight,
- See PEACE, page 4
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