Senate Bill No. 114
(By Senator Lucht)
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[Introduced February 24, 1993; referred to the Committee
on Education.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article ten, chapter
eighteen-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to higher
education; and removing the cap on certain fees collected by
the governing boards of the state's colleges and
universities.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article ten, chapter eighteen-b of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. FEES AND OTHER MONEY COLLECTED AT STATE INSTITUTIONS
OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
§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 of
students enrolling at each state institution of higher educationunder 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 student
union building fee. All such building fees collected at aninstitution 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) 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.
NOTE: Fees collected by state colleges and universities are
capped at five hundred dollars per semester for in-state students
and one thousand dollars per semester for out-of-state students.
The purpose of this bill is to remove this cap.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.