PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Students at UW-Green Bay are speaking out about what they say are hefty online course fees.
They’re frustrated that it costs more to take an online class versus an in-person class, especially if the class is only offered online.
“It definitely adds up and took a big chunk of change out of my wallet,” UWGB junior John Reinke said.
Reinke said he’s paid an extra $300 in fees for online courses. At UWGB, it costs $348 per credit, plus $25 extra per credit for an online class.
This frustrated Reinke and prompted him to start a petition calling for the elimination of online course fees.
“We’re already paying for the tuition itself, and a lot of the same programs that they’re using are the same ones that in-person students use already. It just doesn’t make sense to me,” Reinke said.
So far, Reinke’s Change.org petition has garnered 664 signatures, with a goal of 750. He plans to continue building the petition over the summer and eventually forward it to UWGB staff.
As a psychology student, Reinke said some of his required classes are offered exclusively online, leaving him with no choice but to take on the more expensive, digital learning format.
“The technology we need to be able to offer the online class — there is an expense to that, for sure. It’s different to teach an online class, and we want to make sure the online classes we’re teaching are as excellent as the classes that we teach here in person,” UWGB Chancellor Mike Alexander said.
The fee — called a “legacy fee” — was put in place in the 1990s when online classes were a new concept. Alexander admits legacy fees are an outdated concept and said UWGB is working with the Universities of Wisconsin to either end the fee or offer alternative in-person options.
“I think, though, our students have been right to call out the issue,” Alexander said. “Yes, of course we’d like to offer them all both in-person and online. We just don’t have the resources to do that.”
Alexander wants to remind students that UWGB is the second most affordable in the UW system. Students don’t expect online fees to go away altogether, but hope to at least see more in-person choices.
“Talking just to my roommates this morning, we’re all living on campus, but over the past year and a half, my specific one roommate has had to take all online classes. Like, there’s been none available for in-person,” UWGB junior Jasmine Puls said.
Alexander said many other UW universities also charge extra for online courses.
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