Senate Bill No. 429

(By Senators Lucht, Holliday, Dalton,

Grubb and Walker

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[Originating in the Committee on Education;

reported March 18, l993;

referred to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article ten, chapter eighteen, of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to tuition and fees, requiring the governing boards of higher education to allow payment in three or more installments and to accept payment by credit card, providing for interest and fees for credit card services.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article ten, chapter eighteen, of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
§18B-10-1. Enrollment, tuition and other fees at educational institutions; refund of fees.
(a) Each governing board shall fix tuition and other fees for each school term for the different classes or categories ofstudents enrolling at each state institution of higher education under its jurisdiction and may include among such fees any one or more of the following: (1) Health service fees, (2) infirmary fees, (3) student activities, recreational, athletic and extracurricular fees, which said fees may be used to finance a student's attorney to perform legal services for students in civil matters at such institutions: Provided, That such legal services shall be limited to only those types of cases, programs or services approved by the administrative head of such institution where such legal services are to be performed; and (4) graduate center fees and branch college fees, or either, if the establishment and operations of graduate centers or branch colleges are otherwise authorized by law. All fees collected at any graduate center or at any branch college shall be paid into special funds and shall be used solely for the maintenance and operation of the graduate center or branch college at which they were collected: Provided, however, That the maximum fees to be collected under this section for resident students shall not exceed five hundred dollars per semester, and for nonresident students, one thousand dollars per semester. The schedule of all fees, and any changes therein, shall be entered in the minutes of the meeting of the appropriate governing board, and the board shall file with the legislative auditor a certified copy of such schedule and changes.
(b) In addition to the fees mentioned in the preceding paragraph, each governing board may impose and collect a studentunion building fee. All such building fees collected at an institution shall be paid into a special student union building fund for such institution, which is hereby created in the state treasury, and shall be used only for the construction, operation and maintenance of a student union building or a combination student union and dining hall building or for the payment of the principal of and interest on any bond issued to finance part or all of the construction of a student union building or a combination student union and dining hall building or the renovation of an existing structure for use as a student union building or a combination student union and dining hall building, all as more fully provided in section ten of this article. Any moneys in such funds not immediately needed for such purposes may be invested in any such bonds or other securities as are now or hereafter authorized as proper investments for state funds.
(c) All fees shall be due and payable by the student upon enrollment and registration for classes. The governing boards shall, however, permit fee payments to be made in three or more installments, plus interest at a rate to be set by the board, over the course of the academic term: Provided, That all fees must be paid prior to the awarding of course credit at the end of the term. The governing boards shall also authorize the acceptance of credit cards for payment of fees or other payment methods which may be generally available to students and may provide for disposition of the reasonable and customary charges for such services.
(d) Refund, as an erroneous payment, may be made of any such fees upon the voluntary or involuntary withdrawal from classes of any student until eight weeks of the school semester or term have expired, but no refund may be made thereafter.