EIU Office of Internal Auditing

#125 - Course Charges

Approved: April 27, 2020

Nomenclature changes: May 28, 2024

Monitor: Vice President for Academic Affairs

Course charges are defined as amounts to be paid by students for supplies, materials, or other instructional expenses of a course (or course section) or program which are directly related to student participation and which may vary in amount from one student to another. Examples: materials used for class projects which the student retains; materials which are used, broken, or destroyed; cost of maintenance of supplies such as towels/laundry; transportation expenses for field trips; and instructional equipment for use in labs (including dedicated instructional computer labs within academic departments) or studios by students. Instructional equipment is limited to single unit costs of less than $2500 and all purchase requests need to be approved by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Students shall be notified in the online schedule for registration which courses have approved course charges and the amount of the course charges.

Course charges shall be assessed, or discontinued, only upon the approval of the President. Course charges shall not be approved for general instructional materials such as course syllabi and examination materials. Course charges will be assessed for all scheduled sections of courses with an approved course fee provided that a department may elect prior to the commencement of registration not to assess or to reduce a course fee for a specific section.

All requests for new course charges and all requests for ongoing changes in existing course charges must be submitted to the Provost by December 1 and to the President for consideration by February 1, and generally will be effective with the succeeding Fall Semester. Fees and charges are considered annually. Interim consideration may be made only in exceptional emergency situations.

Funds collected as course charges shall be expended directly or indirectly related to the purpose for which the charge was authorized.

Course charge funds shall be deposited into a separate account.

All course charges shall be reviewed annually by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Use of Course Charges

Department chairs are responsible for maintaining records showing that the course charges were used within the course for which they were charged.

Course charges should be used in the course section for which they are charged to benefit the student's learning experience. If a course charge is intended to help cover equipment used in labs, the unobligated balance at the end of the fiscal year will be transferred to an equipment reserve restricted for that purpose. Any other unobligated course charges will be transferred to the Income Fund at the end of each fiscal year.

Procedure

1. Requests for a new course charge, including a detailed justification shall be submitted by the Department Chair for review by the Dean and by the Vice President for Academic Affairs. If endorsed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the request will be routed to the President's Council for consideration and recommendation by the President.
   
   • Limited student-centered instructional equipment uses need to be included in the initial fee justification submitted by the requesting department and the acceptable scope of instructional equipment purchases must be explicitly detailed (i.e., microscopes, graphic design lab computers, and so on). Instructional equipment cannot be used to support research or other non-course based instructional activities.                                
2. Following approval of a course charge by the President, the Treasurer shall determine if a new account is required or if an appropriate account already exists. If a new account is required, a New Account Request form shall be submitted by the Department Chair.
3. Funds collected shall be accounted for within the individual accounts established for that purpose within the Material Fees (Course Charges) Entity and shall be subject to year-end expenditure and carry-over limitations as prescribed in the Legislative Audit Commission Guidelines.

The repository of record for charges approved by the President shall be in the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.