Every year, NC State students pay the university a $30 Campus Security Fee, which goes towards a variety of personal health and safety initiatives on campus.

David Rainer, associate vice chancellor for environmental health and public safety, broke down some of the fee’s purposes.

“When the fee was implemented, we were able to allocate funds to certain campus initiatives,” Rainer said.  “We fund security systems — card access systems, closed-circuit TVs, blue lights and security guards — on campus.  We also provide sexual assault and investigative training to police officers.”

Rainer said the Campus Security Fee also goes towards enforcing the Clery Act, a federal law that requires college campuses to publish crime statistics. 

“The Clery Compliance Office also deals with fire safety, emergency planning and Wolf Alerts,” Rainer said.

In addition to physical safety measures, the fee also pays for mental health services under the umbrella of the Department of Academic and Student Affairs.

“Most importantly, the mental health counselors who directly support students across campus are supported by the security fee,” Rainer said. “It also helps pay for a campus substance abuse counselor.”

The fee supports the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity (OIED), according to Sheri Schwab, vice provost for institutional equity and diversity.

“The OIED gets 12.5% of the money collected in the security fee,” Schwab said. “All of this money goes towards Title IX enforcement. This encompasses training for Title IX investigators, educational materials that tell students what their Title IX rights are, and the online training modules for new students that aim to prevent sexual assault.”

The security fee was first introduced in 2015, and it has been $15 per semester ever since. The departments that the fee helps fund have had some trouble with this amount, according to Rainer.

“As salaries go up and the fee stays the same, we’ve had to move money around to continue to support people who are funded through the security fee,” Rainer said. “NC State asked the UNC System for a fee increase to help us deal with this.”

In November, the NC State Board of Trustees approved this request and voted to increase the Campus Security Fee by $10.40. The increase alleviates the departments’ financial burdens and allows them to pay for new initiatives.

“For OIED, the fee increase is going to pay for an educator at the Women’s Center who works to prevent interpersonal violence,” Schwab said.