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SFAC recommends $8 student fee hike

Increase is necessary to maintain current funding levels, the fee committee reports

By Portia-Elaine Gant
Senior Staff Writer

After nearly a month of hearings, the Student Fees Advisory Committee decided to increase UH's Student Services Fee to $150 per semester but maintain the base level of funding for the 2005 fiscal year.

"There wasn't enough money generated to allocate enough funds to all of the groups. It was easy to make a decision when we thought we had a lot of money, but when we looked at the actual amount, we had to look for an alternative that was fair," SFAC Chairman Jackie Thomas said. "(Faculty SFAC member Wilford) Weber came up with the idea of holding everybody constant at what they got last year."

The proposed $8-per-semester fee increase is expected to generate about $650,000 in additional annual revenue.

Maintaining 2004 funding meant some requests had to be overlooked, Thomas said. The Forensic Society, and the Student Program Board were among groups that SFAC couldn't provide additional funding, he said.

Thomas said the committee considered groups that received multiple allocations. The Department of Campus Recreation, for example, gets $5.8 million a year in dedicated recreation fees, but SFAC also recommended it receive $473,566 in FY ‘05.

A controversial topic during SFAC hearings was the Urban Experience Program's one-time request to expand its office space on the second floor of Oberholtzer Hall. The committee approved a one-time request for $32,000, with $25,000 earmarked for the expansion, but Thomas said remarks from Vice President for Student Affairs Elwyn C. Lee in support of the allocation were taken as a recommendation only.

"We had a very vocal and involved committee, so they made unbiased and informed decisions," Thomas said.

Among the changes SFAC recommended was making the Student Government Association's $119,456 a one-time allocation rather than base funding, citing unfilled seats in the SGA Senate and concerns about executives maintaining required office hours.

To help resolve such issues, the committee recommended that a task force examining student leader "compensation, office hours and accountability" be convened by Sept. 1.

As for the fee increase, the committee reported that maintaining current support for student fee-funded groups would be impossible without it.

"Unless we get 4,000 or 5,000 more students to offset the cost, it's going to have to go up," Thomas said. "You'd have to cut programs or faculty or staff without an $8 increase."

The SFAC recommendations are awaiting approval by University President Jay Gogue.

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