The student online fee discussed at Thursday's committee meetings for UF's Board of Trustees is still up for negotiation after a meeting Friday morning.
At the same meeting the board also approved a nearly ,300,000 bonus for UF President Bernie Machen.
The online fee was initially proposed as a ,2-per-credit-hour charge on any Web section of a class or any class that uses the E-learning system.
Several trustees, including UF Student Body President Ryan Moseley, said the fee was unfair.
UF students will already be hit with a 5-percent-per-credit-hour technology fee next fall, Moseley said, and students often don't have a choice when it comes to taking online courses.
It's not their fault many large classes have been forced online, he said.
Trustees decided to renegotiate the fee and vote at a later time.
In an interview after the meeting, Machen said Moseley's concerns had a lot to do with why the board held off on the fee.
"There are real costs now," Machen said, citing the technology fee and a 5 percent tuition increase beginning in spring. "I think the board did the right thing."
The board did, however, approve a ,10 transcript-copy fee and a more ambiguous equipment fee.
The equipment fee will be used for campuswide upkeep such as repairing science labs or tuning pianos. The amount of the fee will depend what needs fixing.
The board also approved performance bonuses for Machen totaling nearly ,300,000, securing his spot as the highest paid university president in Florida and sixth highest paid president in the nation.
One trustee wasn't so quick to dole out the dough.
Trustee Al Warrington, chair of the board's Committee on Finance and Facilities, was the only trustee to vote "nay" on Machen's early Christmas gift.
After the meeting, Warrington said he wouldn't talk about his reasons behind his vote, only revealing that it had to do with new information about "administration."
