More Mandatory Fees
The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees voted last Wednesday in favor of increasing student fees at a meeting held on the Lowell campus. According to the proposal submitted to the board by the Finance Committee the fee hikes will raise fees at the University’s campuses at an average of 3.2 percent for the impending academic year.
For students on the UMB campus that percentage manifests as a $241 increase for the 2005-2006 academic year.
The money accumulated by the raise is set to finance new faculty, improvements in technology, and debt services.
Motley Weighs In On New Transfer Credit Policy
Following his State of the University address last Friday, Interim Chancellor Keith Motley told the Mass Media that area community colleges had surfaced concerns regarding the UMB’s new transfer credit policy announced to the university within the Spring 2005 edition of the division of Enrollment Management newsletter.
The policy, scheduled to take effect on June 1, reduces the accepted number of credits transferred from a two-year institution from 90 to 70. Once a student has matriculated at UMass Boston transfer credits, unless given special permission, will only be accepted from accredited four-year colleges. Finally, individual departments are encouraged to stricter limits for the acceptance of transfer credits of matriculated majors.
The proposal, submitted and approved last fall by Faculty Council, was drawn by Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Kathleen Teehan.
It states that, “Eliminating the option of taking courses at two year institutions once a student has matriculated into a degree program at UMass Boston will decrease the number of courses students take off campus for reasons of cost and level of difficulty.”
When asked about the possibility of conflict with the university’s urban mission, Vice Chancellor Teehan maintained that keeping students within the classrooms of UMass Boston is a priority.
Dr. Motley, says that news of the new policy reached the leaders of Boston-area community colleges while he was attending an American Council on Education meeting in Washington, D.C. He continues that he received a number of phone calls, questioning the changes in transfer credit acceptance.
“Those are our partners, and we’re not turning our backs on any of the community colleges. The way it may be interpreted, the language that was put in there may not be the correct language, so we’ll revisit that and make sure that it is right,” says Motley, who plans to meet with heads of the community colleges sometime this week.
“That would be sort of hypocritical of me who personally served …[as] vice chair of the board at Roxbury Community College… I have always been committed even everyday of my life in higher education, to making sure there’s a pipeline,” said Motley when asked of the potential the policy had to challenge the urban mission.
He continues, “Remember, this policy is pre-dated, so whenever those things come out, now I have to begin to work and make sure that all of this blends in the right way…It wasn’t about trying to eliminate any of those other colleges that you may have participated in. It was about making sure that your degree from this university was a real degree from here.”