Thursday, April 2, 2009
After about 40 hours of hearings, reviews and deliberations, the Student Senate fee review subcommittee finalized its recommendations regarding which campus organizations would see cuts in funding.
The recommendations were amended slightly and then passed at the finance meeting Wednesday night and will go before full Senate for final approval next week.
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Numbers
Student Health Operations: $2.98 fee increase
Student Health Maintenance: $1.00 fee increase
Counseling and Psychological Services: $0.32 fee increase
Student Union Building Fee: No Change
Student Union Renovation: No Change
Student Senate Activity: $2.00 decrease
Student Media Fee: No Change
Women's and Non-Revenue Sports
Operations: No Change
Capital Improvements: No Change
Educational Opportunity Fee: $0.25 decrease
Campus Safety: Fee retired, Board allowed to retain its reserve
Child Care Construction: No Change
Campus Transportation
Operations: No Change
Bus Procurement: $1.00 increase
SafeBus: No Change
SafeRide: No Change
Environmental Improvement
Recycling: $0.40 decrease
Renewable Energy and Sustainability: $1.00 decrease, New Stipulation restricting fee to capital construction only
Legal Services for Students: $0.20 decrease
Newspaper Readership: $0.50 decrease
Office of Multicultural Affairs
OMA Operations: $0.10 decrease
Multicultural Education Fund: $0.35 decrease, New Stipulation limiting travel to below %40 of total MEF budget
Multicultural Resource Center - Construction: No Change
Facilities Maintenance: No Change
Student Union Activities: $0.50 decrease
Wireless Implementation Fee: No Change
Student Recreation and Fitness Center
Operations: $1.00 increase
Construction: No Change
Facilities Maintenance: No Change
Sports Clubs: No Change
In total, 30 fees were reviewed for the purpose of maintaining fee costs at the current level for next school year.
Student Body President Adam McGonigle said it was important that any cost increase for students be used to fund academics over other campus programs. Five of the fees reviewed received increased funding while another nine were decreased.
“The fees are the largest amount of money students have control over,” Brian Hardouin, fee review committee chairman, said. “So it’s important that we show students and the administration that we can handle their money responsibly.”
Below is a comprehensive evaluation of the more controversial fee changes.
The Fees
1) Campus Transportation
2) Environmental Improvement
3) Student Media
4) Student Union Activities
5) Campus Safety
The Change
1) Increased by $1.00
2) Decreased by $1.40
3) No change
4) Decreased by 50 cents
5) Eliminated
What it means for you
1) The dollar increase for transportation would go into a general bus procurement fund.
Danny Kaiser, assistant director of parking and transit, said purchasing new buses was beneficial to students because they were more reliable, more environmentally friendly and required fewer maintenance costs. He said the buses currently owned were old beyond the normal life expectancy of buses and needed to be replaced.
2) England Porter, Independence senior and chairman of the student environmental advisory board, said the cuts would drastically affect the group’s efforts to bring sustainability projects to campus.
“There are a lot of students who are really discouraged that it was cut and to such a great degree,” Porter said.
She said there were many projects in the works and did not know how the cut in funding would affect them.
3) The campus media fee funds KJHK, The University Daily Kansan, Kiosk Magazine, KUpedia and KU Filmworks and was originally recommended to be cut by 25 cents. However, in the last minutes of the meeting, Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., junior, amended the bill to take an additional 25 cents from the newspaper readership fee and put it towards the campus media fee.
In his presentation of the amendment, Porte said it was important to fund student media over national outlets.
4) Nathan Mack, Lawrence senior and vice president of administration and finance for Student Union Activities, said the 50-cent fee cut, coupled with decreased funding from other sources, would have a dramatic effect on the types of programming SUA would be able to offer next year.
Mack said the group would try not to cut the number of events it organized, but would instead have to focus on doing them for less.
“It’s just going to take a lot more work,” Mack said.
5) Felix Zacharias, Wichita junior, who chairs the campus safety board, said cutting the campus safety fee sent a negative message to the student body, though he understood why it was done.
He said he thought the campus safety fee had accumulated enough money in its reserve account for the board to work with next year.
Zacharias also said some projects would no longer be possible.
“Difficult times bring innovation, and it’s just going to be a matter of how creative we can get,” he said.
— — Edited by Heather Melanson
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Comments
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
Cut athletics.
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
The boathouse fee was originally supposed to sunset after 3 years...and this is the end of the third year.
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
So you let Athletics keep the money that was supposed to sunset this year, and cut the safety fee instead? That's pretty fail.
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
Is anyone mad that the SUA fee was cut 50 cents. but not athletics? The SUA fee is arguably a fee that needs to at least stay the same level to maintain operations. As talent fees increase with inflation, it is hard to bring quality events to campus if the fee is not maintained. Women's and non-revenue sports fee could lose up to $5 and NO ONE would take a hit...
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
The Kansan needs to write a piece on how the athletics fee is not only superfluous, but blatant thievery. We can't even TRY to cut it anymore, as we know it will be vetoed by the chancellor. The students need to get angry about this, plenty of senators have been for years. Maybe if students spoke up we'd be able to have it changed (removed entirely.)
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
I was going to mention the chancellor veto, handy. This is the true reason we can't cut the athletics fee, even though the athletics department made over $20 million in profit last year (2nd most out of the Big XII) compared to an average $8 million profit across the Big XII.
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
The Campus Safety fee was technically "retired." It's still there, but just will not be collecting money from student fees because it has enough money in its reserve account.
Senate finalizes funding recommendations
Hopefully the state won't take that money using certificates of indebtedness.
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