A student fee or student activity fee is a fee charged to students at a school, college, university or other place of learning that is in addition to any matriculation and/or tuition fees . It may be charged to support student organizations and student activities (for which it can be called an activity fee ) or for intercollegiate programs such as intramural sports or visiting academics ; or, at a public university or college, as a means to remedy shortfalls in state funding (in which case it can often be called a technology fee ). Further fees may then be charged for features and facilities such as insurance, health and parking provision.
7-638: In the United States, the constitutionality of mandatory student activity fees has been adjudicated several times by the Supreme Court . Most recently, the Court has ruled that public universities may subsidize political groups by means of a mandatory student activity fees so long as the manner in which such funds are dispersed are political neutral. [T]he First Amendment permits a public university to charge its students an activity fee used to fund
14-479: A national legislature or by a subordinate-level legislature such as that of a state or province may be declared unconstitutional. However, governments do not only create laws but also enforce the laws set forth in the document defining the government, which is the constitution. When the proper court determines that a legislative act or law conflicts with the constitution, it finds that law unconstitutional and declares it void in whole or in part. Depending on
21-472: A program to facilitate extracurricular student speech, provided that the program is viewpoint neutral.” Despite the commentary of the US Supreme Court, most student activity fee funds are today used by-and-large for non-political purposes. [Research has] found that, by and large, funds distributed by student governments go to non-political organizations. Where fees are used for political groups,
28-479: Is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution ; the status of a law, a procedure , or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When laws, procedures, or acts directly violate the constitution, they are unconstitutional . All others are considered constitutional unless the country in question has a mechanism for challenging laws as unconstitutional. An act or statute enacted as law either by
35-533: The United Kingdom and New Zealand or because the constitution is codified, but no court has the authority to strike down laws on the basis of it like in the Netherlands and Switzerland . In many jurisdictions, the supreme court or constitutional court is the final legal arbiter that renders an opinion on whether a law or an action of a government official is constitutional. Constitutions define
42-685: The distribution seems to reflect the preferences of the student body; thus, they meet the Supreme Court’s “viewpoint neutral” standard. The Student Activity Fee of the University of New Hampshire is relatively unique amongst other comparable institutions of secondary education in that the fee is administered by its autonomous student government , free from faculty or staff advisors. During fiscal year 2019, all undergraduate students attending UNH paid $ 89 towards their fee. Constitutionality In constitutional law , constitutionality
49-429: The type of legal system, a statute may be declared unconstitutional by any court or only by special constitutional courts with authority to rule on the validity of a statute. In some countries, the legislature may create any law for any purpose, and there is no provision for courts to declare a law unconstitutional. That can occur either because the country has no codified constitution that laws must conform to like in
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