Online comments

From “New fee leaves students in an uproar” (by Lauren Niday, Feb. 26)

Yes land grant universities that pay no property taxes, and have been paid off or free of real estate costs since 1918.
Out-of-state tuition is 43K a year, but you’re hurting for money? Puleeeze!
Student loan dollars pay those fees, which are … funded by student loans ergo tax payers.
They think the kids are dumb enough to blithely go along.
I think it’s fraud to take student aid and then [ask] us [to] up this aid by funneling it to Nelnet. I wonder who at Nelnet sits on the university board or is related to someone in the finance office.
Seriously. Defrauding the taxpayers. Especially in cases where the loans are ultimately defaulted.
— madmotherssupportingstudents

I think Financial Services has forgotten who it is that supplies the money they live off of. Instead of seriously considering the petition to get rid of the fee, their response is “to educate us.” And what will they educate us about? To me, it sounds like a story about how terrible it is for the University of Arizona to pay credit card fees. Apparently they “cannot afford to continue to pay these fees.”
So, they just shove the fees on us. It makes sense, right? Even if the university thinks the charges are ridiculous, students should be OK with paying them. The students will gladly pay for it as long as “this is not a new fee.” And college students can obviously afford to pay $680 fees, even if the university can’t.
— Clark

Is it really that hard to make two payments a YEAR by check instead of credit card? And do we seriously think that the university can afford to just throw away $3 MILLION just for the convenience of paying by card?
It’s not like you can’t pay your Bursar’s bill online, even if you’re using a check. And sure, the fee is new to the students, but $3 million doesn’t just magically appear in land-grant public universities. The students WERE, in fact, paying the fees themselves. Just not explicitly.
— Soumya (in response to Clark)

From “ASUA Senate candidates talk platforms” (by Elizabeth Eaton, Feb. 26)

Who cares? The ASUA Senate is just a club like any other and everyone’s just going to use it to boost their resumes. Nothing of importance will get done. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
— thekevinshow1990