“According to Chase Mitchell, chair of the segregated fee committee, student segregated fees will increase by $50 for the next school year.

“What we recommended and was just approved by the chancellor was an increase of $50 per student, which is a 4.93 percent increase,” Mitchell said. “The total amount per semester is going to be $1,065 if you have a full credit load.”

Mitchell said segregated fees are fees students pay that go towards student services.

“We have the segregated fee committee, and they handle some types of distribution and that’s for things like the Children’s Learning and Care Center, athletics, the sports complex, the Oshkosh Student Association, Reeve [Memorial] Union, the Student Health Center, recreation [and] intramurals,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the main reason there is an increase is because of the Reeve renovation.

“In general, almost every unit that’s funded by segregated fee[s] requested a small increase,” Mitchell said. “The biggest single thing is the renovation of Reeve Union.”

Mitchell said Reeve would be renovating the west half of the building.

“They’re basically going to be redoing the whole thing, making it so the entrance is handicap accessible [and] redoing the Student Leadership and Involvement Center,” Mitchell said.

The segregated fee cost still would have increased without the Reeve renovation added to it Mitchell said.

“The total increase would have been closer to 2 percent instead of almost 5 percent,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said even though the fee is rising, UW Oshkosh has a lower segregated fee compared to other UW schools.

“UW Oshkosh is the fourth lowest segregated fee in the UW System, which is pretty impressive considering we’re the third largest institution,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell also said the cost students pay in segregated fees could drop sometime in the near future.

“A couple years from now, one of our previous debt services for the last renovation, we’re going to be done paying it off, and then it [the fee] will drop back down,” Mitchell said.

The Segregated Fee Committee Advisor Jean Kwaterski said the cost of segregated fees fluctuates each year.

“So over the years, it depends on the unit [and] their funding,” Kwaterski said.

Kwaterski also said there is typically a small rise each year because of the faculty and staff.

“We have to pay fringe benefits for people, and so health insurance goes up every year,” Kwaterski said. “There’s never been a time where health insurance has gone down, and so there’s always some increase for that.”

According to Kwaterski, the Green Fund was added to the 2014-2015 proposed segregated fees.

“The students voted at that time to put $3 a semester, $6 total a year, into a fund per student, and that money could be used for green initiatives,” Kwaterski said.
Kwaterski also said the municipal fee, paid to the City of Oshkosh, will not increase in the 2015-2016 school year.

“We are paying them for plowing the streets, for the fire protection, the city police protection, that kind of thing,” Kwaterski said. “Every year we have to pay that, and we charge each student $21 a year to help pay for that, and we are not increasing that.”

According to Oshkosh Student Association President Jordan Schettle, students get a say in large renovations especially when the money is pulled from segregated fees.
“They [students] do need to agree to a big expansion of segregated fees in that way,” Schettle said

For example, several years ago students had to decide on whether or not to agree with the proposal to renovate the front of Reeve Schettle said.
“Students most likely agreed to it [the Reeve renovation] at some point during that time,” Schettle said.”