During the coming academic year, students will be charged the individual credit-hour fee, which is $440, for all enrolled hours above 17 credit hours. Starting in 2013-2014, students who enroll in more than 16 credit hours per semester will be charged the standard credit-hour rate for each additional hour.

This is important because many students at Kent State are required by their roadmaps to take 17 or more credit hours in order to graduate in 4 years. It also discourages students from taking any extra classes that aren't necessary for their major or LER requirements. There are many other complaints with the newly passed fee increases, but these two seem to stick out the most amongst the students.

The "equity" being created by the university is only encouraging the students who only take 11 or 12 credit hours to continue to barely take classes. As students, we are here to learn, and forcing us to pay extra to get the best education possible is wrong and shouldn't be allowed or tolerated.

The following is taken directly from KSU's mission statement which can be found at http://www.kent.edu/president/mission-statement.cfm

"Kent State University will change lives by encouraging outstanding teaching and innovative learning opportunities, by cultivating excellence in all we do, and by seeking greater access and affordability for our students. Kent State shall expand its dynamic leadership through recognized scholarship and path-breaking research, through increased levels of external support leading to new discoveries and economic development, and through partnerships with other institutions and organizations in the pursuit of academic excellence. To further these common goals, faculty, staff and students, as well as our alumni and community supporters, shall serve as collaborative partners in advancing Kent State's status as a model for 21st-century public higher education."

Part of KSU's vision is to seek greater access and affordability for students. By implementing the fees in question, Kent State is actually making itself less affordable. We are also supposed to be in the pursuit of academic excellence, which is discouraged by the new fees.

One of the core values in our mission statement puts, "academic freedom as the foundation necessary for critical inquiry in a democratic society." Our academic freedom becomes extremely limited when we are forced to take strictly those classes which are required for our major and LERs.

Finally, a strategic goal in the mission statements tells us that it's KSU's job to, "focus on those we serve, especially our students." The students of KSU would be best served by not being forced to pay extra to further our learning and education in college. It is time that we actually practice what we preach.

We, the students of Kent State University, are not happy with the new fees put in place by those who run our university. We need to remember that Kent State is a school, a place for education, and this ideal needs to be put back to the forefront of Kent State's vision.