ABOUT THIS SERIES: This is first in a five-part series examining how the University raises money and where it spends those dollars. Today we look at a health center fee increase and where that money goes. Tuesday we’ll report on the newspaper readership program. Find documents and the whole series on redandblack.com.

University students could see a $4 increase next fall in what they pay to use the Health Center – or dish out more for each visit.

The Health Center proposed the new fee – increased from $191 to $195 per semester – last week to the mandatory fees committee as a “must have.”

To arrive at the $4 amount, “We started with what expenses we had no control over – indirect expenses such as the administrative overhead cost and retiree benefits,” Jean Chin, director of the Health Center, told The Red & Black on Sunday.

With a $4 increase in fees, the Health Center would pull in $226,700 extra. Without the increase, students will see more come out of their pockets.

“We have two sources of revenue – the health fee and the fee for service,” Chin said. “Without the fee increase, the only options are eliminating a service or increasing a service fee, and those aren’t good options. Those options are the last resort.”

So where would the $226,000 go?

The majority of increased expenses – about $160,000 – comes from health insurance, life insurance and retirement plans for current employees, as mandated by the Board of Regents. As an auxiliary service on campus, the Health Center is responsible for paying this amount instead of the University.

The next highest cost comes from operating expenses, most of which Chin said can’t be controlled. As an auxiliary service, the Health Center must pay an overhead charge to be on campus – this year to the tune of $368,000 – and Chin foresees an increase of about $20,000 for next year. Other indirect operating expenses include required increases in health and life insurance benefits for retired workers, the Health Center has no choice but to pay up the $10,000 difference.

The final aspect of operating expenses, which can be controlled: utilities. Students didn’t pay for the recent $17 million Health Center expansion, but the new health fee will help cover the increasing cost of keeping the lights on.

“The addition of 30,000 square feet resulted in a 37 percent increase in square footage to the Health Center,” Chin wrote in the fee proposal. “We anticipate a conservative 5 percent increase in expenses related to utilities to support this additional square footage.”

This 5 percent prepares for $10,000 in increased utility usage.

“The students have spoken to us. They tell me what services they want,” she said. “We have a very robust student committee. We listen to students and take them very seriously.”

The Student Health Advisory Committee – composed of 20 students across various years and majors – are liaisons to the Health Center who meet bimonthly on behalf of students.

“We unanimously voted in favor of the $4 increase,” said Daniel Thames, a senior biochemistry major and a member of the committee. “Dr. Chin always shows us the preliminary outline of the budget for upcoming fiscal years and shows us what she’s thinking line by line – where money has been spent and where it will be spent. We always give a lot of feedback.”

Thames sees a need for the increase as a public good.

“The Health Center saw 100,000 visits last year, and those are students here on this campus around you who are sick and getting better,” he said. “Plus, the Health Center has already seen record numbers with the H1N1 cases, and it’s only the fall. Seasonal flu doesn’t really kick in until February, and the swine flu is still changing.”

“Some people say they never use the Health Center, but you never know what emergency may happen, and we want the services to be there for students,” Thames said. “Think about the counseling and psychiatric services – you may not use them, but for some students they’re already very necessary and very expensive.”

With a large scope of services to offer, the University’s Health Center is one of 28 colleges to achieve Joint Commission accreditation. Of those 28, Chin pulled out three with similar quality, staff size and operating hours – the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Illinois – to compare health fees. The Health Center fee is $2, $12 and $34 below them, respectively.

“We’re a highly utilized service, and I don’t think students realize or appreciate that until after they’ve left the University,” Chin said. “The Health Center has few peers and no longer has any aspirational college health centers.”

The mandatory fees committee is considering the $4 health fee increase, a $2 increase from Campus Life, a $2 increase from Recreational Sports and a $3 fee for an office of sustainability. If approved at the Nov. 20 mandatory fees committee meeting, the proposals move to University President Michael Adams, who could approve the fees for fall 2011.

“We’re an extraordinary bargain, and we’re trailing behind other schools in the South in tuition – Florida, South Carolina, Alabama are thousands higher than we are,” Adams said at a media briefing Thursday. “Tuition and fees should increase, but in the single digits. Families are hurting like the University is, and we’re trying to maintain quality while sensing the needs of the University.”