ITS fee will see slight increase

By Andrew Warren

warr0120@algonquincollege.com

Algonquin students will be digging a little bit deeper into their pockets next semester after the Students’ Association approved an increase to the Information Technology Services fee.

Starting in the fall semester of 2009 full-time students will be paying an ITS fee of $61.12 per semester instead of the $50 they now pay. The SA board of directors believes the increase is necessary to maintain the current level of service that students enjoy.

“Our package that we have is a very comprehensive ITS service package,” SA president Rob Nettleton said. One of the SA’s chief concerns is that few students are aware of the services their fee is paying for.

The SA board of directors held an emergency meeting on Jan. 10 to question ITS chief information officer, Stephen Abraham, about why a fee increase was needed and to debate the pros and cons of such an increase.

“We’re up for ... an increase if we see value for it,” said SA vice-president Laura Spragge.  Prior to the meeting, the board was strongly against the recommended increase. Many of its members questioned why students were paying for several services that they weren’t even aware existed.

Abraham was blunt in laying out the situation.

“If we don’t increase [the fee] we will have more difficulty doing some of these things,” he said. “If you look across colleges in Ontario, Algonquin’s fee is right there at the bottom. You’re not over-paying for the services if you compare to other colleges.”

The SA board announced on Jan. 13 that it had approved the fee increase. “All their questions were answered and they felt comfortable approving it,” said Rob Nettleton.

 In addition to printing, access to computer labs, and school-wide wireless internet access, the ITS fee also pays for such things as a web page for every student and the replacement of every computer in the school every four years. The SA has attached as a condition to the increase that ITS make more of an effort to communicate to students exactly which services they’re paying for.

“There are 18 different services that are in that and I don’t think any student can identify all 18,” Nettleton said.

The increased fee will help the college maintain all of the current services being provided, while also allowing ITS to expand and improve on the services already being offered.

“We have as a requirement that they explore new means to promote, because what we all agree upon is that ITS doesn’t do a very good job promoting very many services,” said Nettleton.