SAN ANTONIO — Some UTSA students are taking issue with the mandatory fees they must continue to pay to maintain services and facilities that are inaccessible during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We actually get charged $192 for the library resource,” UTSA senior Joshua Garcia said, as he began listing off the various fees laid out on his invoice, eventually ending on: “…a $3 charge for our UTSA ID card that we’re supposed to access everything with. And all of those things we can’t access right now, since the pandemic (began).”
Officials with the University of Texas at San Antonio has provided explanations for the continuation of many of these fees.
The Library Fee provides access to digital resources and research materials.
The Recreation Center Fee pays for Rec Center programs, utilities, debt service and operational costs as well as the salaries of 24 full-time staff and 300 rotating student workers. The Recreation Center was modified to comply with physical distancing requirements, and does offer access to exercise equipment and programs during the Spring semester.
And the university says it has, in fact, waved some of the fees for fall 2020 and spring 2021, like the International Learning Fee and Transportation Fee.
For Garcia, this isn’t much consolation.
“About halfway is cut around because of the pandemic because we just simply cannot access a lot of it,” he said. “I’m still paying $5,000 a semester in order to sit in my living room with my computer.”
Garcia says he isn’t really worried for himself, but he is concerned about some of his friends.
Garcia said that a lot of the people he grew up around in the Rio Grande Valley didn’t consider college an option because of the cost. He worries some of his classmates may drop out rather than deal with the financial stress.
“I’ve seen a lot of people struggle and seen a lot of people have to worry about food, even where their next food is coming (from), how they’re going to pay for rent,” he said.
UTSA is not alone in maintaining its fees. Other area colleges like the University of The Incarnate Word and Texas A&M at San Antonio have similar fee structures.
The school has a detailed explanation of all of their fees on their Roadrunner Roadmap website. They encourage students who are having financial challenges to contact their enrollment center for help finding emergency financial resources.