As reported by the Daily News on June 8,  Kentucky’s Council on PostsecondaryEducation approved a 3.6 percent increase in the tuition rate that Western Kentucky University can levy upon its students this fall. Is that enough for WKU? Hardly!

While the public was distracted by Dormgate and the Cherry Hall debacle, the administration and regents chose to slip around the CPE tuition cap and assess a separate FEE, called a “college fee” — sort of like the baggage fees that airlines currently demand. These fees replace “course fees” that previously were charged only in certain classes. Now every course within a college will come with a fee.

The fees vary from college to college. The minimum fee of $15 per credit hour will be charged by Potter College of Arts & Letters, the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, and the Ogden College of Science & Engineering, while the Gordon Ford College of Business and the College of Health and Human Services will charge $20 per credit hour.

So, depending upon the particular college, a three-credit-hour course will include the cost of tuition plus an additional $45 or $60. For a student taking five courses, the tab will be somewhere between $225 and $300 per semester. It’s estimated that these fees will generate well over $3 million in “additional” revenue, most of which will go to the General Trough and then dribble to whoknowswhere.

And what do the students get for such fees? Answer: absolutely nothing, no new course enhancements whatsoever! The same English 100 course or History 101 course that had no fee in the spring of 2025 will now have the added surcharge. At least with the infamous athletic fee of $218 per semester students could freely attend a sports event!

The administration argues that these blanket fees across the entire student body will help “level” the costs added to certain courses. Oh? In the spring of 2025, Accounting 110 charged an additional $45. But for the fall of 2025 there has been a 33% increase to $60. Some leveling! And in those same semesters, Environmental Science 280, a web-based course with absolutely no on-campus involvement, has jumped from having a zero fee to $60! And remember, online classes already cost more per credit hour than face-to-face classes.

The Regents, who are charged with overseeing WKU’s finances, have apparently winked at the aforementioned shenanigans. Without any advocates for students and their parents, the fleecing will continue unabated, increasing year after year after year! Isn’t it illegal to charge a fee for non-existent goods and services?

Walker Rutledge

Bowling Green