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The St. Mary’s business office handles accounting, budgeting, purchasing, and contract and grant administration.

Business Office / General Information / Rate Setting Policy

Rate Setting Policy

Rate Setting Policy

APPROVED BY BOT: June 6, 1992
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 1992

OBJECTIVE: Fees charged to individuals and groups are established by the appropriate authority, published, and communicated as necessary. Determination of prices for retail sales, trade-ins on fixed assets, and ticket prices for drama, music, or art exhibits/concerts is excluded from this policy.

1 POLICY:

1.1 The Board of Trustees is responsible for setting the rates charged to students enrolling in credit-bearing courses. This includes items such as Tuition for full- and part-time students, Room, Board, and Mandatory Fees, including the Facility Fee.
1.2 The Executive Vice President for Administration, in consultation with the Assistant Vice President for Administrative Services, the Comptroller, and others, shall establish all other rates. This includes, but is not limited to, Special Academic Fees (including those for exchange programs), Miscellaneous Fees and Fines, Non-Credit Tuition, and rates charged to non-students, such as athletic fees or conference rates.

2 PROCEDURE:

Rates Set by Board: Student Charges

2.1 Fees charged to students shall be presented for Board approval in the public meeting of December for the academic/fiscal year beginning the following July 1. The schedule and justification will be included in the Comptroller’s report to the Board, which is a component of the report of the Executive Vice President for Administration. The Management and Finance Committee will be provided with the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed rates prior to the meeting of the full Board.

2.2 Once approved by the Board, fees charged to students will be published in the College Catalog, housing contracts, continuing education brochures, and other appropriate printed matter.
Rates Set by Administration

2.3 Departments of the College whose programming includes the establishment of rates to be charged are responsible for forwarding proposals to the Executive Vice President for Administration by January 15 for the fiscal year beginning July 1. For a listing of employees responsible for initiating proposals, refer to Exhibit 1. The proposal should include a list of fees proposed by the department, a brief description if necessary, previous two years’ actual charges, proposal for the coming year, projection for the ensuing two fiscal years, and background or justification for proposed changes which do not correspond to inflationary shifts.

2.4 The Executive Vice President for Administration will convene one or more meetings of the College Rate-Setting Committee (EVP Administration, Asst. VP Administrative Services, Comptroller). Tentative decisions will be made to establish the rates; these results will be used by the Comptroller in projecting revenue to support the proposed operating budget for expenditures. The Rate-Setting Committee will fine-tune the rates as necessary, as a result of expenditures approved by the Budget Review Committee. Final results of the rate-setting deliberations will be summarized along with Board-approved rates in a Schedule of Fees Adopted for Fiscal Year XX, which will be distributed to the Management and Finance Committee of the Board and to employees who are director level and above.
Exhibit 1 Departmental Responsibility for Administration-Set Rates