Fee may not go to student vote
October 30, 2009 by Andrew Bauer
Student Government Association might lower a fee amount for the Tiger Wellness Center, meaning students might not participate in a student referendum.
According to the SGA Constitution, only fees of $1 per credit hour or higher need to be approved in a student referendum. Fees lower than that can be approved by SGA.
Members of the Legislative Political Action Committee said the change came when they realized they were including Virtual College students in their calculations. Virtual College students do not pay on-campus fees.
LPAC members said the idea behind the original proposal was to put 50 cents toward daily operational costs and 50 cents toward a new wellness center in the future.
When Virtual College hours were excluded, the committee discovered at least 85 cents would be needed to cover operational costs alone.
Some senators said the fee amount could be seen as trying to sneak something past students. Sophomore Sen. and LPAC member Andrew Dempewolf said that wasn’t the case.
“Since we’re dropping it down to 85 or 90 cents, it’s not that we’re trying to bypass the students, it’s that we’re looking at the situation differently,” Dempewolf said. “The numbers we had before, they were wrong, but they (Tiger Wellness Center) don’t think they need a full dollar, so that’s why we’re dropping it down.”
However, some senators acknowledged many students might view any fee increase negatively.
“I asked a few of my constituents what they thought of it, and their initial reaction was, ‘if I pay more money, then I say no,’” said senior Sen. Devin Konkel.
However, several senators said regardless of the perception, the main goal should be to provide the Tiger Wellness Center a stable flow of cash, removing it from the allocations process.
“What we funded them last year was the fourth largest item, so it was a huge chunk of change,” said senior Sen. Luke Hachmeister. “But that was basically to barely get them through this year. It wasn’t what they wanted, but it was basically just punting them down the field.”
The Tiger Wellness Center was funded $55,214.73 for this year through allocations. Only three groups received more, and the Tiger Wellness Center was able to gain extra cash through the president’s office and the provost’s office.
