SUBJECT: Lab fees; lab costs
DATE: 2/95; 3/97
On Wed, 8 Feb 1995, Terry Favero wrote:
>
> What are the standard lab fee's that biology departments charge/per
> course, and does that money go directly to instruction?
>
> thanks
>Could someone suggest the per student cost of running a freshman biology
>laboratory? And what is the estimate for opperating an upper level
>biology laboratory? That is in general terms, I understand there is
a
>range.
>
>If I divide my supply budget by # of students in my freshman lab it
comes to
>just over $15.00 per student. I was suprised it was that low. How DO
I do
>it? (just kidding). If I add in the cost of TA salaries, the cost per
student
>rises to about $70. In my upper division physiology lab, I'd estimate
cost
>per student at $125 (supplies only).
Mary H. Gray D.V.M.
Department of Biological Sciences
Lilly Hall of Life Science
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
(317)-494-8185
FAX (317)-494-0876
Regarding the cost of running student laboratories:
Here at Pitt we charge $25 per lab for the Intro labs and $45 for the upper
division labs. These lab fees are used, in our department, for major equipment
purchases. As for actual supply cost per lab ... I calculate for budget
purposes a "per section" cost. I find that this cost is approximately
$250-$300 per lab section of 18 students. But keep in mind that we run between
53 and 67 labs per semester so the cost of supplies that can be used repeatedly
is distributed among many students.
I hope that this helps.
Rosemary Boone
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Univ. of Pittsburgh
email: rmboone@vms.cis.pitt.edu
phone: 412-624-9325
At present, the biology department at the College of the Sequoias in
Visalia CA (a community college) does not charge a lab fee as we have
been told that there are legal constraints regarding charging a fee if
the students are not allowed to take materials home. In addition, we rank
on the list of poverty level schools and many of our students are already
on fee waivers and therefore unable to afford lab fees.
We do not charge any lab fees at Trinity. My annual budget for the 2 intro
courses, a non-majors course, and my research students, is $6500.00. Not
counting my non-intro students, with about 120 students per semester in
Intro, that comes out to about $27.00 per student. If you include my
non-majors class of 35 and my 2 research students, my entire teaching
budget equals $23.46 per student. On top of that, I charge $8.00 each
semester for the Intro lab manual produced in-house, and I end up keeping
that as petty cash to spend on various supplies (which doesn't amount to
much) I might buy locally at the supermarket, etc. The rest goes to pay
for the printing costs.
Mike O'Donnell
--------------------------------------------------------
Michael A. O'Donnell
Dept. of Biology
Trinity College
Hartford, CT 06106-3100
michael.odonnell@mail.trincoll.edu
We've figured our per students costs at about $100/semester/lab section
(18 students).
There is some possibility that my per lab cost estimate is off somewhat
-
we don't actually calculate costs in this fashion. I think my costs are
low for three reasons: first and foremost - most of my major lab expenses,
equipment, models etc., have been bought with separate funds which we have
been fortunate to get every two or three years; second - we have a pretty
large program (1,500-1,700 students per semester) and so, buy everything
in
bulk; and third- my lab manager does a lot of prep work rather than us
buying "ready-to-use" supplies.
Kent
*******************************
Kent A. Vliet, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Laboratories
University of Florida
Biological Sciences Program
Gainesville, Florida 32611
Office: (904) 392-1565
Fax: (904) 392-3704
Jim-
I have a budget of $5500 a year for supplies for our Intro Bio lab. This
covers a total of 15 lab sections during the year. In addition, there is
a budget of $2500 for buses for field trips. I often don't use all the
funds alloted, tho, and they go to pay for courses which have gone
overbudget. A small sum of money is provided for curriculum development
(about $300). If any large equipment dies, its replacement must jockey
for position on the capital equipment budget.
Susan Schenk
Keck Science Center
Claremont Colleges
Claremont, Ca
sschenk@jsd.claremont.edu
To all participants in the biolab conversations to date:
I have gleaned so much useful information from your fast-moving
commentary! This avenue of communication has brought colleague
contact to a new level, and should impact biology education
significantly.
I would like to add information to the on-going conversation
regarding cost per student in science labs. At Floyd College, a two-
year public-supported college, we have calculated the cost for
supplies per course, per student to be as follows:
Non-majors general biology: $7.00 per student per quarter
Majors general biology: $8.00 per student per quarter
Anatomy/Physiology I: $5.00 per student per quarter
Anatomy/Physiology II: $8.00 per student per quarter
Intro Medical Microbiology: $45 per student per quarter
We have never charged lab fees. We are now considering charging
a fee to the microbiology students since the supplies for this course
greatly stress our over-all supply budget. We are thinking of
charging $35. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.
Leigh Callan
callan@jason.fc.peachnet.edu