By Rochelle Sharpe
[…]So where does all this money go?
At Rutgers, the local teachers union got hold of budget records detailing what happened in recent years with the university’s $170 dance appreciation course fee.
The fee was supposed to help defray the costs of visiting artists and performance tickets, but one year $125,685 went toward building renovations, and another year $399,000 was used to buy and improve equipment. Only about $36 of each $170 fee was spent on performances between 2012 and 2014, according to David M. Hughes, the union president.
“The purpose of the course fee is not to accumulate a slush fund,” Dr. Hughes said, calling the fees “backdoor tuition.”
A 2015 audit found that some fee money had been “used too broadly,” a Rutgers spokesman acknowledged. But, he said, new policies would prevent future problems. The fee in 2016, meanwhile, was reduced to $100.
New Jersey’s comptroller audited three state universities where fees made up about a third of tuition and fee charges. He found that some money subsidized payroll expenses, and suggested that the universities be more transparent. Administrators countered that, with state funding cuts of 29 percent over the last decade, they are forced to use fees to make up for budget shortfalls and pay for construction projects.
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