The Student Fee Advisory Committee met April 30 and May 7 to discuss how to allocate over $17 million in student fees for fiscal year 2027. The committee passed all proposed budget increases, resulting in over $2.6 million extra to be spent compared to fiscal year 2026.
As of publication, the budget approved by SFAC for 2027 exceeds the total amount of student fees collected from students.
Student fees are included in the semesterly tuition and fees each student pays. The fee amount varies between students, depending on how many credit hours are being taken, but is usually around $787 semesterly for full-time students.
SFAC is the university-wide committee in charge of making student fee allocation recommendations to the vice president of Student Affairs and the university president. There are six different budget categories the committee has influence over: student services, medical services, recreational facilities, the Student Union, athletic programs, and the Student Services Building. The committee shapes how much money from the student fees fund potentially goes toward each category.
The student fee spending increase coincides with the first year in which student enrollment has increased since the 2022 high of 31,540. In fall 2025, UTD had 30,190 students, a 0.95% increase over the fall 2024 enrollment of 29,855.
Fee proposals are put forward by Student Affairs staff and leadership, and are typically requests for a budget change to cover the needs of specific programs, equipment or travel costs.
The single largest approved change was the allocation of $845,032 to the Accessibility Resource Center, which had previously received $0 from the student fee fund. The ARC was previously, in fiscal year 2024, housed under the now defunct Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. With the end of DEI programs in Texas as a result of SB 17’s changes to the Texas Education Code, the ARC had its expenses transferred to the Office of the Provost for both fiscal years 2025 and 2026. Fiscal year 2027 will be the first in which it is entirely funded by student fees.
According to its proposal, ARC plans to use its newfound funds to expand disability services through the hiring of translators and the implementation of CART, a real-time translating service for students who require translation-type accommodations.
For fiscal year 2026, the largest allocations of student fees went towards funding the Student Counseling Center, Activity Center, Student Health Center and University Career Center, each receiving over $2 million each. This continues to be the case for fiscal year 2027.
While all proposals have been approved by SFAC, nothing is final as the changes still have to be reviewed and approved by President Prabhas Moghe. If he decides to make any significant revisions, the committee will be informed and given a chance to advocate for the proposals initially approved before anything is set in stone.
The committee will meet once again in the upcoming fall semester, where student fee allocation changes for fiscal year 2028 will be discussed. These meetings are open to the public. Future meetings times and locations will be published on the Student Affairs website once finalized.
This news brief is part of The Retrograde’s ongoing series covering student fee budget allocations and changes.