Associated Student Government senators will vote tonight on a resolution calling for an increase in the student activities fee from $99 to $120 per year.
“If we’re going to get the increase it needs to happen before the end of the quarter,” said Srikanth Reddy, ASG Executive Vice President and McCormick junior. “What we’re trying to do now is gauge student support.”
ASG polled students in April 1999 about increasing the student activities fee from $66 to $120 per year. Of the 2,145 students who voted, 63.5 percent supported the increase. However, the Board of Trustees voted to raise the fee to only $99 the following April. Student activities money is allocated to A-status student groups.
Reddy and ASG Financial Vice President Carson Kuo, who introduced the bill last week, said administrators told ASG to ask for the remaining increase.
“We were told two years ago by the administration to come back two years later – now – to ask for the remaining increase of the (fee),” Kuo, an Education senior said.
The extra money from the previous increase entered the funding pool in Spring 2000 and student programming has benefited from it, Kuo said.
“The performance has indicated that (student groups) are worthy of getting (money) and we just can’t give it to them because we don’t have enough,” Reddy said. “Most of this additional money – we’d get about $120,000 – would be used for smaller groups who maybe are aspiring to be A-status.”
Kuo and Reddy had asked student groups to write letters supporting the increase. Alianza, which has had problems receiving requested funds, chose not to do so.
“We pretty much discussed it and decided we weren’t going to submit a letter in support of it because we’re not sure if the money would even get to us anyway or impact our funding at all,” said Alianza President Katherine Unmuth, a Medill junior. “For a lot of groups, I don’t even know if they would see a marked increase or if it would just benefit a few groups.”
Although a majority of students who voted in the referendum two years ago supported the increase, Public Affairs Residential College Sen. Eileen Keeley said some PARC residents did not want to pay any more money for student group programming.
“It’s definitely a legitimate argument that we just waste the (fee) as it is on programming nobody goes to,” said Keeley, a Weinberg sophomore. “Some of them see an advantage with their student groups, but most of them feel that they pay too much for programming they don’t attend.”
Senators also will vote tonight on a bill to create an online Chicago guide for NU students and to form an NU listserv for those who support a Latino studies program.
The Senate might vote on a last-minute resolution to show support for Accessibility Awareness Week, which began Monday, speaker of the Senate and Weinberg junior Bassel Korkor said.
Senators also will introduce two new bills calling for:
_Ѣ Priority housing for transfer students
_Ѣ Preference for students in reserving tennis courts at Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center.
