The parade of fees on college campuses never seems to end. There are extra charges to start college, such as orientation fees and freshman fees, and extra charges to finish, such as senior fees and commencement fees. There are nickel-and-dime fees, like $8.50 at Indiana University to drop a class after two days, and large ones, like $3,049 to major in digital media and animation at Alfred State College, State University of New York.

Then there are all the mandatory charges rolled into the published “tuition and fees,” including a slew of euphemistically named fees for costs that used to be covered by tuition, like the annual $814 “student success fee” at California Polytechnic State and the $3,324 “academic excellence fee” for entering students at the University of Oklahoma. Both go mainly toward faculty recruitment and salaries.