UA looks to raise fees for activities

Undergraduate Assembly leaders said this week they are going ahead with their attempt to raise the University's general fee to provide more funds for student activities. Members said they hope to raise the fee, which will be $1,220 next year, by three to five dollars, to give student activity leaders more money to dole out. Leaders said the Student Activities Council and the Social Planning and Events Committee would be the primary beneficiaries of the increase. The proposed increase, which would be mandatory for all undergraduates, would provide SAC and SPEC with between $27,000 and $45,000 more to work with each year. UA General Fee Committee chairperson Jennifer Strom said this week that, along with leaders from SAC and SPEC, the UA is concerned that student activities currently do not receive enough funding. Only 5 percent of the general fee, which totals about $11 million each year, is currently used for student activities. The rest goes to recreational facilities, academic support and student health services. "We talked [to administrators] about why it's not sufficient for what they want to do," Strom said. She explained that UA leaders are currently preparing a formal proposal for the provost and the vice-provost for University Life. UA representative and General Fee Committee Vice-chairperson Ethan Youderian said he hoped the proposal will get the administration to agree with the UA's arguments. "Basically, [the proposal will say] why we think the general fee is necessary and how the student body can benefit by an increase in the general fee," the College freshman said. College sophomore Strom said the Graduate and Professional Students Assembly last year lobbied for and received a similar increase to provide more resources for its activities that has been "successful for them." VPUL Kim Morrisson said this week however that the increase in the graduate students' fee was, in addition to giving grad activities more funding, designed to bring it into line with the undergraduate fee. She said an increase in the undergraduate fee would "throw the parity out of whack," and concluded "I think that we're trying to achieve an equitable distribution." Morrisson said that to alter the fee, a complex administrative process would have to be initiated inlcuding approval by the provost, president, budget office and the Trustees. Morrisson said she was uncertain the provost or president would approve an increase. "I think it's very difficult right now," she said. "Obviously we're in a tight fiscal environment. I know that students want to keep tuition and fees down."

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