a protest on Tuesday focused on SJSU’s Student Success, Excellence and Technology Fee

Administrators address students April 29 at Tower Hall (Christiana Cobb photo).

On April 29, President Qayoumi emailed the following message to all students, faculty, staff and administrators.

Dear SJSU Community,

As many of you know, a protest on Tuesday focused on SJSU’s Student Success, Excellence and Technology Fee. There have been discussions here and on many other California State University campuses about success fees, which fund essential student services that would otherwise be unavailable because state budget appropriations remain below pre-Recession levels.

At San Jose State, my administration has been meeting with student leaders on this topic for several months. While the success fee funds programs and services that benefit many students, we understand that the fee is a substantial addition to the total cost of attendance.

We have been developing plans to address this concern, and we will act on two fronts:

  • This fall, we will unbundle the success fee into three components. This should make it easier to follow the allocation of these fees to courses, to other instructional activities such as library materials, and to student support services such as academic advising and technology.
  • Student leaders have suggested surveying students to research an acceptable dollar ceiling for the success fee. I agree that polling students is a good idea and we will work together to make this happen, ideally by the end of this term. Our plan is to take the poll into consideration when setting the success fee for fall 2014. Students should expect a fee reduction.

We welcome the opportunity for further discussion with the campus community, and will update you on our progress.

Cordially,

Mohammad Qayoumi
President