HB 176-UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FEES  8:16:59 AM CO-CHAIR STORY announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 176, "An Act relating to notice of new fees and fee increases from the University of Alaska; relating to billing statements from the University of Alaska; and providing for an effective date." 8:18:07 AM REPRESENTATIVE ASHLEY CARRICK, Alaska State Legislature, as prime sponsor, presented HB 176 to the committee. She reminded the committee that the proposed legislation was previously brought up by the Alaska State Senate in the 33rd Alaska State Legislature. 8:19:48 AM CHAD HUTCHINSON, Director, State Relations, University of Alaska System, gave invited testimony on HB 176. He directed his comments to other testifiers. 8:21:26 AM JULIE QUEEN, Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services, University of Alaska Fairbanks, gave invited testimony on HB 176. She said that all three universities within the University of Alaska (UA) system have consolidated fees and explained that each university has the discretion to assess fees specific to the services they offer. She said that the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) was the first school in the UA system to offer a consolidated fee based off of requests from students to improve the student bill that was described previously as "overly complicated". She detailed the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) tuition and fees committee, which asked for a review of the consolidated fee in the name of transparency in its billing process. She said that it is the goal of the UA administrative services to be transparent to students and explained that the current language of HB 176 was problematic because it was seeking to solve a problem that did not really exist. 8:25:23 AM CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT shared her understanding that HB 176 would create difficulty for the University of Alaska (UA) system websites in that each campus would have to create a different breakdown of its fees. VICE CHANCELLOR QUEEN confirmed that Co-Chair Himschoot's understanding was correct. 8:27:16 AM REPRESENTATIVE SCHWANKE asked if the UA system could implement a more simple method for a student to interact with their fees. VICE CHANCELLOR QUEEN shared a series of methods that the UA administrative services could offer an itemized list of fees, such as a QR code. 8:29:10 AM REPRESENTATIVE EISCHEID asked Vice Chancellor Queen for "more context" about the UA system website software. VICE CHANCELLOR QUEEN explained that the UA system website has been updated in the recent years and said that UA Administrative services is working to modernize the invoice system for its student invoices. 8:33:41 AM RYAN BUCHHOLDT, Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services, University of Alaska Anchorage, gave invited testimony on HB 176. He explained that the UA Board of Regents requires that fees are set prior to the start of class registration for a given semester, particularly so students may know of the cost of a credit before they register for the class. He said that currently, the fees on the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) campus are around $42, while the UA community campus fees range $14-$22 dollars. He explained that an itemized list of fees is always available on the UA course catalogue. 8:40:28 AM CO-CHAIR HIMSCHOOT asked if there are any other postsecondary institutions that deliver an itemized fee list and asked how a UA student might find the fee codes listed on their student invoice. VICE CHANCELLOR BUCHHOLDT said that the way that UAA and its sister institutions handle consolidated fees is unique to the UA system and explained how a student might go about obtaining an itemized fee statement from their consolidated fee list. 8:44:37 AM REPRESENTATIVE SCHWANKE asked if a UA student might be able to challenge a consolidated fee. VICE CHANCELLOR BUCHHOLDT explained that a "contested fee" doesn't happen very often and has only occurred a few times over the previous years. 8:48:53 AM REPRESENTATIVE EISCHEID asked how many pages are in the UA course catalogue and asked what is "inherently confusing" about the process of breaking down a student's invoice. VICE CHANCELLOR BUCHHOLDT emphasized that the UA student body and student government have expressed a desire for a consolidated fee. 8:52:52 AM JON LASINSKI, Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services, University of Alaska Southeast, gave invited testimony on HB 176. He explained that the UAS Juneau campus established a consolidated fee in the fall of 2013, with its Ketchikan and Sitka campuses following suit in the fall of 2015. He said that the fees were implemented in the interest of student feedback and wellbeing, and are regularly reviewed and published on the UAS website "well in advance" of the start of each academic year. He said that a recommendation of a 2019 UA internal audit was to bring the consolidated fees to the rest of the UA system, given their success in streamlining the student billing process. He suggested that limiting a bill statement to an electronic mail service would be problematic and affirmed that the UA administrative services "remain committed to transparency to student fees." 8:54:57 AM REPRESENTATIVE EISCHEID asked who conducted the 2019 audit that recommended the implementation of consolidated fees and asked why text message was the best way to communicate with its students regarding fees. VICE CHANCELLOR LASINSKI answered that the 2019 UA internal audit was conducted by Mickey Pittman and said that the text message fee statement was based off of feedback from students. 8:56:56 AM CHAD HUTCHINSON, Director, State Relations, University of Alaska System, gave invited testimony on HB 176. He said that the UA system is making its best effort to work with its students and maintain transparency in its consolidated fees. 8:57:49 AM REPRESENTATIVE EISCHEID asked about a letter of resolution from the Association of Students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and asked about the necessity of HB 176. MR HUTCHINSON said that the proposed legislation is unnecessary and the issues it was trying to address could be resolved through the UA administrative process. 9:00:57 AM REPRESENTATIVE CARRICK commented that the "fight" for an itemized list of consolidated fees has been going on since at least 2013. She noted that UA students are currently able to see a more rudimentarily itemized list of consolidated fees than they were in years prior. She emphasized that an itemized list of consolidated fee would not be "too confusing" for a person enrolling in college level courses. 9:07:25 AM CO-CHAIR STORY announced that HB 176 would be held over.