Purpose
This policy applies to all special class/course fees charged to students.
Authority
Special Class/Course Fees are governed under RCW 28B.15.031 and the Delegation of Authority of the Evergreen Board of Trustees.
Establishing Fees
Class/Course Fees that support academic work are limited to:
- A fee that provides tools, equipment, or products that have a continuing value to the student (e.g. art material for a project retained by the student following the course). Fees can not be used for consumable materials that are used by the entire program.
- A fee that provides a pooled purchase of services the institution does not normally provide (e.g. a block of theater tickets at a group discount, where each student would otherwise be expected to buy an individual ticket or meals on a retreat of field trip).
- A fee that provides for overnight field trip expenses.
- A fee that provides for study abroad expenses.
- A fee that provides overhead expenses for managing the Academic Student Fee program.
Faculty request Class/Course Fees at the time they develop their academic program and submit their proposals on the Curriculum Management Database (CMD). Guidelines for these fees are provided in the Fee and Expenses section. Generally, this is information is submitted over a year in advance of the offering but some offerings may not be conceived until weeks prior to the start of the quarter.
All Class/Course Fees must support credit-generating academic work in the program. The expectation is all student registered for a CRN will be charged the fee and the fee will not be supporting “optional” activities.
No Class/Course Fee will be less than $10 per student.
Separate Class/Course Fees will be requested for each quarter of a multi-quarter program and the fees will not be transferable between quarters.
All Class/Course Fee requests are reviewed and approved by the Budget Dean, Evening-Weekends Studies Dean or the Summer School Dean.
All Class/Course Fees must be published on line prior to registration. In some circumstances an Class/Course Fee may be added after registration; to justify this addition the Dean will consider the size of the fee, the timing and the benefit it provides the students.
Reconciling Fee/Refunds
It is the responsibility of the Academic Budget Office and faculty to track expenses and fee balance.
All charge backs must be finalized by the end of the fifth week of the following quarter in order to provide timely refunds. Any charge back finalized after this deadline will not be accepted.
If the expenditures are greater than the Class/Course Fee collected, the balance will be charged to the academic program budget. The overage may be charged to the Class/Course Fee budget at the discretion of the Budget Dean.
If the expenditures are less than the Class/Course Fee collected, the balance will be refunded to the student by the Academic Budget Office unless the balance is less than $10 per student.
All refunds will be made by the end of the seventh week of the following quarter.
If the Class/Course Fee budget has a balance of over $5,000 at the end of the fiscal year, the excess balance will be applied to student fee expenses in the following year by the Academic Budget Office.