This year, $1,488,758.75 was funded from the Academic Access, Enhancement and Excellence fee, better known as A2E2.
By the end of this academic school year, CSU East Bay students and faculty will be able to experience and use newer equipment and materials funded by their additional $40 per quarter fee.
According to Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs James Houpis, $900,000 came directly from A2E2 fees, with the remaining funded by money allocated by the university to the Provost’s office and academic affairs.
Ranging from new speakers and amplifiers for the University Theatre, high precision wavelength meters, one Steinway model B piano, upgraded equipment for advanced experimental physics lab, and 40 new laptops for the library, equipment is beginning to fill into the campus, with what academic affairs says puts student fees to its proper use.
Between this year and last year, according to Houpis, about $4 million has been invested into the campus by the A2E2, replacing outdated equipment, funding student services and upgrading materials.
“We see the effects of the states disinvestment in higher education, and students can’t control the tuition increases or lack of funding, all of which is heavily affecting their opportunities and education,” said Houpis. “But with this extra enhancement, we can ensure that students will be receiving equipment and materials they vitally deserve to make them competitive in the marketplace.”
In comparison to last year’s A2E2 system, this year a new method was implemented in the decision making process by including students in the decision making process, what Houpis credits as contributing “a much needed and broader perspective.”
Students began participating in fee decisions as early as January, where each department in each corresponding college met for several weeks. As each department had been filing in requests from the previous year, students assisted their chairs and professors in ranking requests through discussion with their fellow representatives and faculty.
After each college finalized requests, the provost’s office then funded each item in order of ranking until they “ran out of money.”
Houpis said this system of involving students not only ensures students have a say in how their money is being spent, but has impressed both the CSU Chancellor and other CSU’s in how CSUEB has pioneered this formula.
Christine Yap, a third year student majoring in Biology, said she has noticed the lack of modern equipment in his classrooms, adding being able to learn from technology actually used in his perspective fields makes her additional fees “totally worth it.”
“A lot of students complain about the extra fee, but at least it’s money we’re spending that we’ll actually be using,” said Yap. “Other schools like UC Berkeley have that equipment and they have that extra advantage over us. We need to have the things to give us just as much of an edge, and I don’t mind spending a little more each quarter to make that possible.”
Susan Opp, associate vice president of Academic Programs and Graduate Studies and member of the A2E2 Advisory Committee, said the planning and decision process will begin earlier for the next academic school year so students can use the equipment sooner.
In addition, Opp said the A2E2 advisory committee is discussing raising the fee from $40 to $50 to $80 beginning for the 2012-2013 academic school year. Per the A2E2 Executive Order 1066, the fee can be a maximum of $120 per quarter.
Opp also said an “A2E2 website” is currently in the works to make all the information regarding A2E2 available to the public, as the university wants to make it “completely transparent.”
“These are students funds and we want them to be a part of the process,” she said. “Last spring we said it, and really meant it when we said it would be a completely open process.”
In addition to equipment, A2E2 fees also supply for instructional activities such as the Model United Nations and Arroyo Literary Review, course materials for English assessments, and recreation activities, and university-wide Student Services and High Impact Programs like tutoring library services.
These areas have received little to no funding in previous years, according to the advisory committee, and Houpis says A2E2 is both a necessity and a welcome for students and CSUEB.
“I think for too long students have become used to the idea that whatever they get is what they’re stuck with,” he said. “That’s not right. Our students deserve the best and they deserve more; it is our duty to provide them with that. With A2E2, they have a say, they have the tools, and they have what they have long deserved.”
