Full-time UConn undergraduates based at the Storrs campus will save more than $700 in discounted mandatory student fees if they choose to take all of their fall courses fully online and do not live in University housing.

The Office of the Bursar recently notified students of the changes on their fall semester fee bills, which were available for viewing through their Student Administration accounts as of July 3. Graduate students will be notified in coming days with information about their fee bills.

This fee discount reflects the expectation that students who live at home and take all of their classes online will have reduced utilization of on-campus services.

The University has instituted several changes in its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to pose logistical challenges as UConn looks ahead to plan for the safest, most effective ways to conduct fall semester operations.

UConn fees are separate from tuition, and are used to fund services that support campus life and related offerings. They include a wide range of services such as student activities, transit, health and wellness services, recreation, arts and athletics, and other non-classroom amenities.

Those mandatory fees are being reduced for undergraduate students who register to take all of their fall classes with online instruction, excluding hybrid courses, and who live off campus.

The amounts charged and reduced will vary in some cases based on the number of credits that a student takes, but for a student taking a full load of 12 credits or more exclusively online, the new mandatory fee amounts (excluding housing and dining) will total $1,009, down from the regular amount of $1,714.

In addition to reducing undergraduate fee bills for those learning exclusively online at home, the University has changed the payment deadlines to Aug. 28, and the schedule on the payment plans has also been extended.

Housing and dining charges have not yet been applied to students’ billing statements, and will be added after Aug. 1 for those who are offered and accept on-campus housing assignments.

The optional University Health Insurance and PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) fees currently appear on students’ fee bills, but they have until Sept. 15 to complete and submit waivers to remove one or both charges.

The mandatory fees, their purposes and the reductions for fully online, off-campus Storrs students taking 12 credits or more will be:

• $345 for the General University Fee (GUF), down from $690. The GUF supports student-related programs and related institutional services that are partly self-supporting and also ancillary to the University’s educational mission. The GUF provides support for such programs as Athletics & Recreational Services, One Card Office, Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, and the Off-Campus Student Services Office.
• No charge for the Transit Fee, which typically is $80 per semester. It supports the campus bus service and also pays the cost of the U-Pass CT, which provides students unlimited rides on all local and express public buses statewide (including the Windham Regional Transit District), Ctfastrak buses, and the New Haven and Shore Line East rail services. UConn students who aren’t charged the transit fee in the fall semester can still apply for a U-Pass, and can still ride the buses when they visit campus.
• Students at regional campuses also will not be billed a transit fee if all of their classes are online, and also are encouraged to apply for their U-Pass.
• $145 for Student Health & Wellness, down from $290. That fee supports Counseling & Mental Health, Nutritional Services, Wellness & Prevention, Women’s Health, Primary & Urgent Care, and related services.
• $125 for Student Recreation, down from $250. It supports the operations, programs and construction repayment for the Student Recreation Center, which will provide fitness services and programming under procedures that follow the state’s reopen rules for gyms and related facilities.
• $85 for the Student Activity Fee, down from $95. It funds the Undergraduate Student Government across all campuses, with that body allocating those funds to student organizations and area residence hall councils. For Storrs-based students, it also supports student media outlets (Daily Campus, WHUS Radio and UCTV) and the Student Union Board of Governors’ programming efforts.
• For UConn Stamford students whose courses are fully online, the Activity Fee will be cut in half, from $40 to $20.
• $234 for the Infrastructure Fee, which remains unchanged. It is used to help pay back the costs of building certain residence halls and partially supports Operating and Maintenance (O&M) costs related to UConn 2000 construction projects, as well as preventive and deferred maintenance.
• $75 for the Technology Fee, which is unchanged. It supports IT services that directly benefit students on and off campus, including software licensing and delivery, wireless service, computers in common-use areas, high-tech classrooms and course delivery modes, and other services.