The Texas Legislature eliminated funding to higher education for courses that are attempted three or more times. An attempted course is defined as any course in which a grade is earned on the transcript, including repeated courses and courses dropped with a grade of “W”. In order to compensate for this loss of state funding, students attempting a course for the third or more time may be charged a fee in addition to the tuition charged for the course. This fee will be assessed for courses attempted at Texas State as of the fall semester of 2002 or later. This assessment does not include courses attempted at other colleges or universities. Certain courses are exempt from this fee because they are designed to be repeated for additional credit, such as thesis, dissertation, and independent study courses; various music, physical education, physical fitness and wellness, studio art, and theater courses; developmental education courses; and topics courses.