Sonoma State University President Ruben Armi?na has abandoned - for now - a proposal for what the school called an academic success fee that was strongly opposed by students.
Armi?na informed the student body of his decision by email Wednesday. He attributed it partly to vocal resistance by students, who had been circulating a protest petition and sending him emails.
"We hear the concern raised by students about the extra financial burden of this fee," he wrote. "We have decided, therefore, not to pursue the academic success fee at this time."
The fee could have been as much as $250 a semester, an increase of about 28 percent. It was seen as a way to hire new instructors, increase classes in high demand and help students graduate in four years.
"People don't want to pay more. That's it," Armi?na said in an interview Thursday. "They were not willing to consider their return on investment."
Many students and faculty fought the proposed fee when it was introduced two weeks ago. Sonoma State campus fees currently are $902, third highest in the 23-campus state university system. Campus fees are in addition to the $2,736-per-semester systemwide tuition for full-time undergraduate students.
A petition opposing the fee circulating on the website Change.org had more than 1,200 signatures on Thursday. The petition signatories threatened to withhold future donations to the school if the president implemented the fee.
Fifty faculty members opposed to the fee pooled $1,000 to fund a separate website to raise awareness for the proposal.
Peter Phillips, professor of sociology at Sonoma State, said the president listened to the opposition.
"I'm glad president Armi?na made the right decision to not impose fees on students who are already overstretched," he said. "His decision was the correct thing to do. He couldn't win in the long run."
Nine other Cal State campuses collect academic success fees. The chancellor's office has authorized each campus to impose the fee at the discretion of each school's president, but only after first consulting with students.
The Associated Students of SSU organized two meetings per day for the past two weeks to hear student input on the fee, said Mac Hart, Associated Students president.
"I'm pleased with the process," he said. "It's very clear on campus that a lot of students were very critical of the fee."
Hart said the problem of bottleneck classes - the core classes that are in high demand for some majors - still needs a solution.
"This issue doesn't end now," he said. "The end goal should be trying to make the academic experience better with class availability."
In the email explaining his decision to set aside the proposal, Armi?na said that offering more classes would raise the average number of units carried by students, which would impact enrollment targets set by the California State University system.
The school does not have a way of managing those changes right now, he said.
"For now we prefer to wait and see how our targets may be modified in the future before any further consideration of a fee," he wrote.
In the interview, he said he does not plan to revisit the fee in the near future.
"In the next few academic years, I don't expect to bring it back," he said. "This is not the right time or place."
(Staff Writer Jeremy Hay contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Matt Brown at 521-5206 or matt.brown@pressdemocrat.com.)
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