Student Publications
University of Houston
151C Communications Bldg
Houston, TX 77204-4015
713.743.5350

©1991-2007
Student Publications,
All rights reserved.

Last modified:

Contact:
ktruitt@uh.edu

News

Rosen slams policy draft

In current stage, UH would charge students $100 fee for each late registration 

by JOHN ARTERBURY
The Daily Cougar

Student Government Association President David Rosen said at Wednesday's evening meeting that a proposed policy for Fall 2007 requiring students to pay a fee for late registration would burden students.

The policy, which is in drafting stages, would mandate that students who do not pay tuition on time would be un-enrolled from classes and charged $100 to re-register. Students registering late would pay the same fee.

Students who pay late should not be punished for their infraction, Rosen said, and such a policy would cause harm to students who rely on financial aid that may not always arrive on time.

"There are a few problems with this," Rosen said. "It operates on the assumption that financial aid works like a vending machine." 

Rosen, who had not heard of the policy until he received a draft copy intended for University staff, said UH students have a 42 percent chance of graduating in six years, and implementing the fee would inhibit the University from reaching the national six-year graduation rate of 55 percent.

"This is easily the most backwards, illogical and harmful policy that I've heard of in the past two-and-a-half years," he said. "I look forward to shooting this down before this ever becomes policy."

The SGA also motioned to refer a bill requiring that all coffee sold at UH be fair trade-certified to committee for further research.

Senate Bill 44002 stipulates that UH food service contractor Aramark sell only fair trade-certified coffee by Fall 2007 and will be sent to the University Administration and Finance Committee for possible amending. 

"When it comes to certification, we have to take a closer look at what students want," College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Sen. Gus Forward said. 

A previous version of the bill had died April 1 when the 43rd Senate dissolved. Representatives of Students for Fair Trade said that in a survey they conducted Wednesday 517 of 528 students polled favored fair-trade coffee over regular coffee. 

"UH is a global university. We can consume responsibly by not exploiting Third World coffee farmers," SFT member and English junior Ross Bernard said. "We could go 100 percent with Aramark." 

Some SGA members raised concerns about the SGA's authority, and a Business Services representative said that selling only fair-trade coffee would close both campus Starbucks locations. 

"Should student government be telling people what they can or cannot buy? If there's demand for coffee then we'll provide fair-trade coffee," Vice President Sam Dike said. "I personally believe this should be an educational campaign, and not a legislative campaign."

Tim O'Brien, graduate-at-large senator and bill author, said the situation was similar to the recently imposed smoking ban in the University Arbor, and that bills such as 44002 should be weighed as equally as others. 

"I still don't think that's substantial enough to pass it," Forward said. "This does not affect student health; it affects people from Third World countries."

In other business, all committee standings for the 44th Senate were approved by the SGA, and Speaker of the Senate Ryan Free was re-elected as speaker. Business Sen. Stephen Quezada was elected speaker pro-tem following a runoff with Forward.

Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu