While the University of Kansas is in the midst of cutting its budget to meet state mandates, Student Senate is in a budget crunch of its own.

This time, it’s not because of overspending or government requirements. It’s an attempt by Senate to prevent an increase in the required campus fees paid by every student.

Some organizations such as the Watkins Memorial Health Center and the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center will need an increased budget to maintain the same level of services they currently provide to students. Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, said in order to provide those organizations with an increased budget while keeping student fees the same, Senate must cut funding to other areas.

McGonigle said Senate was more interested in cutting fees that did not have jobs tied to them. He said there are also certain fees that cannot be cut because they are tied to different bond programs that need continued payments.

McGonigle initially issued a typed recommendation, which he said was only a draft, to the Senate executive staff. He recommended the elimination of the campus safety and campus media fees, which would cut funding to KJHK, The University Daily Kansan, Kiosk Magazine and KU Filmworks along with various campus safety projects. Those cuts would save $5.75 per student per semester.

That same memo allowed for increased funds in the Student Activity Fee, currently $17.50 per student per semester, to finance “minimal salary increases” for senators. He then amended that statement and recommended to the fee review subcommittee that the campus media fee be reduced and the campus safety fee be “retired” for three years with no increases made to the Senate Activity Fee.

However, Brian Hardouin, Broomfield, Colo., law senator and member of the finance committee that heads up the fee review subcommittee, said all fees would be under close scrutiny and warned senators against making the process political as the election process begins.

“This is very serious,” Hardouin said to the Senate Finance Committee at its meeting Wednesday. “I take this process very personally. If we screw this up people get pink slips and lose their jobs.”

The review subcommittee will meet several times during the next month to determine which fees will need increases and which fees will be cut.

The subcommittee has broken down all student fees into three groups: bonds, funding boards and services.

Jason Hornberger, senior budget and personnel administrator for the Office of Student Success, will compile information regarding the bond fees that students pay. The review subcommittee will not receive any proposals or formal hearings about these bonds because they are payment obligations that have not been fulfilled.

Some Senate fees go through funding boards, which disburse that money to various student groups. For instance, the campus safety fee operates under one board but disburses money to multiple groups.

Each of these boards, along with service fee units, will attend a hearing between March 4 and March 13 where the review subcommittee will hear testimony from each group.

The date of the hearings has not yet been set but will occur between March 23 and March 30.

The subcommittee will make its final recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee on April 1 for approval before presenting them to full Senate on April 8. Chancellor Robert Hemenway has final approval over any recommendations Senate makes.

“My biggest concern is individuals will use fees to influence the election process,” Hardouin said. “It removes the decisions from being those that are well thought out and well reasoned to those that are just easy to sell and those that fit on a poster. This process needs to be more planned out than that.”

— —Edited by Liz Schubauer