Town hall meeting discusses student fees

On Feb. 25, SGA held the first town hall meeting in the cotillion ballroom.

The purpose of the town hall meeting was centered around explaining what each Nicholls fee was for.

“It is confusing; I want to go through that,” said Nicholls President Jay Clune.

Austin Wendt, SGA president, welcomed everyone to the meeting and answered some questions that were later brought up.

Nicholls faculty on the panel included: Clune; Sue Westbrook, provost and vice-president for academic and student affairs; Terry Braud, vice-president for business and finance; Michele Caruso, associate vice-president for student affairs and dean of students; Todd Keller, associate vice-president for academic affairs; and Matt Roan, athletics director.

Clune presented slides that broke down where the funds for each fee went and explained the university’s use of each fee, with assistance from the faculty on the panel.

One major fee discussed was the “general fee” under the “system assessed fee.” This general fee is there to increase the revenue to the university because of the lower price of tuition, which the university cannot raise.

The “energy surcharge fee,” under the “fixed rate fees,” is based on the amount of energy used. This fee changes from each academic year to the next because it is based on the amount of energy the university used the year before.

After the fees were explained, the floor was opened to questions from students in attendance. The board answered all asked questions and spoke about other concerns on campus.