Students raise concerns about hybrid classes

Over the past two weeks, student senate members have been discussing an issue that was recently been brought to their attention concerning family and consumer science hybrid courses and an online fee that is being charged to both online students and in-person students.  

These hybrid classes, also known as 89 courses, are required for FCS majors to take and are a majority of their classes. These courses were designed so that students who were on campus could take the class in-person while students who were online could take the same class from wherever they were. 

One thing that was not factored into these classes and has remained unnoticed by a majority of faculty is the online fee being charged. 

The online fee adds an extra $130 to every three-credit class, and is something that students must pay regardless of if they are a full time in-person student or are completely online. Since a majority of the courses a FCS major are required to take are designed this way, that extra $130 can add up to a hefty amount each semester.  

“I didn’t teach an 89 till I came over here to FCS and I guess I wasn’t aware that they were being charged a different fee, it’s not something that pertained to me. But then all of a sudden students were like, ‘my bill is higher, why is my bill higher?’ I didn’t know why,” FCS advisor and Professor Lorie Hunn said. 

The issue was originally brought up in an email to Charles Snare, former vice president of academic affairs, by a concerned FCS student who wanted to know why they were being charged the online fee. However, due to the timing in which it was sent and his upcoming retirement, there wasn’t much that could be done on Snare’s part. That was when Hunn suggested that students should reach out to the student senate.  

FCS students did just that and senate immediately took an interest in the issue.  

“I would note that a lot of times you restructure things and don’t really recognize some of the repercussions that comes with restructuring so maybe a lack of knowledge about this up until this point is why it is even happening.” Senate Vice President Konery Klueber said at the Jan. 27 senate meeting. “I think that even bringing it up is really important.” 

One senate member in particular took it upon himself to help. Over the past two weeks, Student Trustee Samuel Klammer has actively involved himself in  

“Those students need to be in that class, they can’t just leave the class and not show up, which is basically what a hybrid class is supposed to be,” Klammer said.  

Determined to figure out the best way to figure this out, Klammer set up a meeting with new Vice President of Academic Affairs James Powell and is working to find a solution to the issue, stating that he would help FCS students take it all the way up to the systems office if necessary.  

“I have the connections,” Klammer said.  

While there is no set solution for this issue as of now, both Klammer and Hunn suggested that the best way to address it would be to set up subsections of a course, one that was available to in-person students and would  not have a fee and one that was available to students who were taking the course solely online.