Students Pay $2,000 For Kean’s Construction Projects

By Siobhan Donaldson | Published by October 24, 2019

Kean University’s full-time students are paying $2,000 a year to finance renovations, new buildings and debt, according to an analysis of the 2019-2020 Undergraduate Course Catalog. 

Listed as a capital improvement fee in the budget, the mandatory fee funds “ renovation and construction projects costing $500,000 or more that are not covered by bonds,” according to the Kean website. It’s the largest listed mandatory fee on the tuition bill.

Kean currently has five major construction projects in the works. 

The other yearly mandatory fees as defined by Kean’s website include:

•  A  $127.50 student government fee, which is defined on www.kean.edu as paying for “campus-wide programming towards students and the community.” 

•  A $322.50 athletics and leisure fee, which funds all areas of the 13 NCAA Division III teams along with the fitness centers and gymnasiums on campus. The athletics fee was raised this year, from $270.

• A $210 student center fee, which funds the university center computer labs, supplies and equipment, the university center game room, university center building maintenance and upgrades along with salaries for student and professional staffing. 

In total, full-time undergraduate students are paying an estimated $30 million in mandatory fees this school year, according to Tower calculations based on 2018 enrollment numbers listed in Kean’s Institutional Research. Institutional Research reports that there were 11,614 full-time students in 2018.

Janice Murray-Laury, vice president of Student Affairs, supports the increase in athletic fees, Stating that athletics has had no major investments ‘in some time.’ 

 “This is an area in which students are very concerned,” Murray-Laury said.  “This year, we are supporting that area of the budget.”

Student-athlete Brice Burger, a member of the Kean Lacrosse team, said he can see a positive impact that projects funded through the athletics and leisure fee have, though he would like to see his team receive “top-tier” equipment.

“We are getting new locker rooms now so I can see where that money is going,” Burger said. 

In 2016, the New Jersey Comptroller found Kean University and two other universities relied too heavily on mandatory fees paid for by students. At the time, the state said the fees represented an additional one-third in costs over the bill for tuition to attend Kean, William Paterson and The College of New Jersey, according to the report. 

The audit pulled data from the 2013 fiscal year and said that Kean commingled fees into one account, lacked documentation for fee increases and used money from fees for payroll. 

During the auditing process, Kean disputed their conclusions and reiterated support for its current operating practices. Kean also stated that they were in compliance with all statutes, regulations, and principles of accounting in their practices. 

In 2018, Kean announced in a press release that it will restructure fees to “simplify students’ bills and reflect best practices in higher education.” 

The release explained that the restructuring rolled five mandatory fees into the overall tuition bill. These fees, which were previously reported in past budgets, are the library improvement fee, the campus improvement fee, the transportation fee, a general service fee, and a technology fee. 

Before the restructuring when more fees were listed separately, students paid over $4,000 in mandatory fees or about $2,000 per semester. 

Kean University is considered one of the most affordable universities in the state, as compared to other public universities in New Jersey.  In comparison, Rutgers University’s mandatory fees are an estimated $6,034 per year, according to its financial aid website.

Oliva Haas, a sophomore studying Environmental Biology, said though her fees are going to needed areas, she wished Kean would do more in the long-term about the environment.

“We should invest in things like solar panels,”  Haas said. “This school has a lot of potential. and I really think we all can create change in it.”

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