The Kennesaw State Mandatory Fee Committee is trying to remove the international fee from students’ tuition until its gradual disappearance projected for 2020.
The KSU faculty senate will vote on a proposal that could overrule the MFC’s choice to remove the international fee in place.
The MFC announced to the faculty senate in January 2019 that the international fee would be phased out and fully removed by the start of the 2020 academic year, based on the meeting report from Jan. 2019.
Director of Global Engagement Programs Dawyn Dumas said that the MFC initially voted in November 2018 to phase out the international fee, which is used to fund the Global Learning Scholarship.
The scholarship allows KSU students opportunities to participate in study abroad trips, conduct foreign research and follow international internships multiple times during their enrollment.
Eliminating the international fee would affect all KSU students as there would be alterations to the list of mandatory student fees. In addition, the ability for students to receive access to the GLS funding would be limited to a one-time use during a student’s time with the university.
The MFC voted to remove the fee because it claimed that the elimination would provide KSU students and the university several benefits.
These benefits include bringing KSU to offer the same opportunities as other Georgia Universities and to promote fairness among KSU students who would be able to use the GLS during their enrollment.
The faculty in support of keeping the international fee has suggested that the MFC’s claimed benefits are not accurate and have noted that six other Georgia institutions have an international fee. These faculty also claim that limiting GLS funds to one-time use will remove a unique feature of KSU’s global learning platform in order to fit the mold of other R2 institutions.
Currently, there is a drafted proposal by Faculty Senator Noah McLaughlin which he states would require the “President and Provost to identify new resources for funding the Global Learning Scholarship by Nov. 15.”
Should these offices fail to respond with an appropriate measure, McLaughlin suggests, “that the $11 International Fee be reinstated in the Spring semester of 2020.”
According to the GLS website, the international fee and GLS were established in 2008 after students overwhelmingly came out in support of its implementation. It has been distributed every semester since.
“Global education is essential to student success in today’s complex and interdependent world,” the GLS website says.
