Year after year, the Student Service Fee increases without students’ consent, but this week, students have the opportunity to put a stop to these runaway fee hikes.
The fee, which funds student programs such as the Memorial Student Center’s committees and Student Activities, stands at $142 per semester, and if approved by students, will rise to $150. It may not seem like much, but if students vote for this deceptively small increase, they are authorizing the University to gradually raise the fee another $100 without student approval. Although state law requires the University to hold a referendum when the fee passes the $150 mark, subsequent increases of less than 10 percent do not require students’ consent.
The spendthrift record of the Student Service Fee Advisory Board, which recommends to administrators the rate of the fee and how the revenue should be spent, should make students reluctant to give the board such sweeping authority to dig into students’ pockets. With annual fee increases of 6-9 percent, the board has been quietly gouging students with rate hikes exceeding the cost of natural growth and inflation. If students approve this increase, they can expect the gouging to resume until the fee hits $250.
In 2001, the board had a $1 million windfall when, following approval of the transportation fee, student service fee money was no longer given to Bus Operations, yet the board still recommended a small rate increase that year. This increase is not to maintain current programs, but to pay for frivolous new initiatives — an absurd proposition in these times of budget cuts.
Students must not relinquish their authority over the fee just yet and should vote no on the student service fee increase.