The UGA Student Technology Fee

How are revenues distributed?

The Student Technology Fee is a mandatory fee that was instituted in 2000 to provide revenues for instructionally-oriented technologies that “provide added value to the curricular and co-curricular educational experiences of the students.“  (STF Guidelines)

How much do students pay?

When the fee was first established, students were charged $75 per semester. No increases were made until 2006 when a $25 increase was approved by the Mandatory Fees Committee, bringing the fee to $100 per semester. An additional $5 increase per semester was approved for FY08, a $3 increase was approved for FY09, and a $6 increase was approved for FY10. Each increase was accompanied by specific justifications, including but not limited to covering rising costs for core software licensure and maintenance costs, increased e-mail quota capacity, improvements to wireless infrastructure on campus and in residential housing, and support staffing. No increase was requested for FY11. For FY12, an increase of $6, from $114 per semester to $120 per semester was approved by the Mandatory Fees Committee to partially support a new enterprise-level Student Information System platform.

How are revenues distributed?

How are STF policies determined?

When the fee was first established, allocation and policy recommendations were made by the Committee for Academic and Instructional Technologies (CAIT) to the CIO and in turn by the CIO to the Provost. CAIT was reorganized in 2008 in order to better focus on its core charge in dealing with academic and instructional issues and would no longer work on the STF. At that time, staff from EITS, Student Affairs, and CTL developed a recommendation for a new model for STF governance that was approved by the Provost. That model includes two new committees. First, the Student Technology Fee Committee (STFC)addresses strategic and policy issues surrounding the program, recommends improvements to the guidelines, and engages participation of senior leadership. Second, the Student Technology Fee Allocations Committee (STFA), appointed and overseen by the STFC, reviews three-year plans and project proposals and makes funding recommendations to the CIO and Provost.

How does the STFA Work?

In the spring, base allocations are calculated and announced via a memo from the CIO. The CIO requests a three-year plan for instructional technology spending for each unit receiving base allocations and also solicits proposals for additional projects appropriate for STF. Units have approximately one month to submit documentation to the Office of the CIO. The documentation is then compiled for the members of the STFA. Members include three staff members, three faculty members, and six students

An orientation meeting is held for all STFA members as soon as documentation is available. The meeting includes a review of the STF Guidelines and instructions for reading three-year plans and rating proposals. In order to manage the large amount of reading in a short time, the STFA divides into three groups. Each group reviews a subset of the colleges and schools documentation and all other unit documentation. Their instructions are to ensure three-year plans are written within the STF Guidelines and inform the STFA when there are questions. For project proposals, readers consider the Guidelines, the logic of the request, and how many students will be served by the initiative with respect to the amount of money requested. Then they give their subjective opinion of the value of the project and whether or not it should be funded. Each small group meets at least once to compare notes and draft recommendations. Those recommendations are then shared and discussed with the STFA in a meeting of all committee members. There is usually a target dollar amount for project proposals, as well as another amount for contingency. (For FY10, these target amounts were $400,000 and $200,000, respectively.) The final recommendations of the whole committee are compiled and sent to the CIO, who reviews the recommendations and submits them for the Provost's approval.

Units are notified by July 1 regarding project allocations and later in the year (as determined by Finance and Administration) if contingency funds will be available.