UW energy fee stands for now, judge decides

Associated Press

SEATTLE — University of Washington students may be hit with an energy surcharge this fall despite the "problematic" legality of the fees, a King County Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Robert H. Alsdorf rejected a request by student Jasmin Weaver for an injunction to block the fees pending trial, ruling that she failed to show she couldn’t afford the charge.

Weaver, student government president at the university last year, said the fees — about $135 a year for a typical full-time student on the school’s main campus — amount to an illegal tuition increase.

"I’m fortunate that I have financial support from my family," she said, "but the reason I filed this lawsuit was for the thousands of students this fee will hurt."

University regents previously approved a tuition hike of about $225 per student, a 6.7 percent increase and the maximum allowed by the Legislature. Students also face a 10 percent increase in campus housing costs and a proposed library fee.

Weaver’s lawyer, James Johanson, said he would probably file a motion for summary judgment, essentially asking the judge to rule on the legality of the energy surcharge without a trial before fall tuition bills are due.

Faced with energy costs soaring past $20 million, the main reason for a $13.6 million budget deficit in 2002, university officials unsuccessfully asked the Legislature for an extra $3.2 million this year. The energy fee would cut the deficit by $4.5 million.

Charging $3 a credit in Seattle and $1 a credit at satellite campuses in Tacoma and Bothell this fall is "legally problematic" because energy expenses were previously budgeted as operating costs to be covered by tuition, Alsdorf said Wednesday.

Under state law, the Legislature sets a cap on tuition at state colleges and universities. No other public college or university in the state has considered a similar surcharge.

"If you call energy costs a special fee, is there anything you can’t call a special fee?" the judge said. "It would seem you could pull out anything that has traditionally been an operating fee and make it a special fee."

University officials have defended the surcharge as similar to a laboratory fee because it is temporary and applies only for on-campus courses, which account for about 85 percent of the enrollment.

Distance learning and independent studies outside classrooms and laboratories are exempt.