Hey everyone. Just thought I’d post this in case it helps anyone.
I just received my bill from the university, and wanted to look at the details to make sure everything looked good, which I’d recommend everyone to do. In case you don’t know how to, go to “View / Pay Bill” in spire, which will bring you to QuikPay. On the QuikPay website there is a small, blue link that says “Tuition Bill Details”, located below the “Make a Payment” button. I clicked on this link and it brought me to a list of all the fees they charge, as well as the amount of each. I looked through the list, and noticed one called “Mass Pirg” as well as another called “Child Care”, totaling $12 per semester. I looked into it a bit, and it turns out that this money goes to fund “undergraduate parents”, as well as a political advocacy group, whose beliefs you may or may not agree with. Although I disagree with them automatically charging you $1 to fund “undergraduate parents” without notifying you, I find it way worse that they charge you $11 to fund a political advocacy group, who may or may not be working against your political beliefs.
Thankfully, though, it is possible to waive these fees, and it’s pretty easy if you know about them and know how (the issue being that a lot of students don’t know about them). To waive the fees, all you have to do is go to SPIRE, click on the “Finances” drop-down menu, then click on “Waive MassPirg / Child Care”, it will bring you to a new screen where you will check the boxes of each fee you want to waive (check both of them if you don’t want to pay either fee), and then wait a day or so for the fees to disappear from your bill. It’s important to note that you have to repeat this process before paying your bill EVERY SEMESTER. Waiving the fee once isn’t good enough, it reappears on your bill the next semester, no matter if you paid it or waived it last time.
I personally waived both. “Mass Pirg” doesn’t seem like a bad group, at least from what they have on their website, and they support environmental protection, which I am generally in favor of, but I don’t know enough about them to know if I should donate, and trying to trick me into unknowingly paying them has made me want to support them a lot less. Make your own decision of course, I’m just sharing this info to help other students out.