College Trying to charge excess fees - need some advice (1 Viewer)

[b-snatchers]

Hi,

My daughter is in her last semester of college. She will be doing an external internship for the entire spring semester. She currently lives off campus as well.

She is being charged the "mandatory" fees from the college (see below):

Student Activity

Health and Wellness

Counseling Service

Student Recreation

Student Athletics

Career and Professional Success

Technology Fee

Transportation Fee.

The total is about 1500/semester.  When I talked to the business office they did mention that they do grant waivers to internships. I finally get an email saying she is not eligible for the waiver since she (or her work?) is within 25 miles of the campus (see below):

University policy requires that a student’s internship, research, fieldwork, or address if taking fully online courses, must be outside a 25-mile radius of the Durham campus in order to be eligible for a waiver of the mandatory fee. Your residence  is within the 25-mile radius so we are not able to grant you a waiver of the fees.

What is my play here? It obviously looks to me like she shouldn't have to pay all of the fees above, since she is not taking any classes and will be at her internship all day. Only thing she might do is to eat on campus once in a while since she has money left on her meal tickets.

Advice?

Thanks!

 

[Dan Lambskin]

My guess is you’re out $1500

 

[tri-man 47]

As a former Controller for a couple of smaller private schools (where we deliberately kept fees much lower than this ...too much of a deceptive practice) - I'd say you're just going to have to pay the fees.  If the school starts granting exceptions, it becomes a very difficult slippery slope.  "My own doctor is 15 minutes away."  "I never use the athletic facilities."  "My mom works in the tech field and helps me with any questions."  Maybe they should adjust their policy, such as for externships, but given their dependency on those large fees, I wouldn't expect that the school has any appetite for that, especially in this competitive climate with fewer college-age students.  Sorry!

 

[Gally]

I think you answered your own question when you listed them as "mandatory fees".  They are mandatory unless you live more than 25 miles from campus.  That is their cutoff for relief.  Your daughter doesn't fit that so the fees remain.  Not really anything you can do.