The Student Affairs Fee Advisory Board will meet Wednesday to discuss budget recommendations for the 2016 fiscal year before presenting the recommendations to Student Senate for approval.
To better understand the needs around campus, SAFAB, a board of nine members chosen by the student body president to present the student opinion on fees to the vice president for student affairs, has been meeting with departments like the Student Recreation Center and Student Health Services since September.
“All the previous meetings were basically for all of the departments to come before us to make a case of why they need any funds, or if they don’t need any student fee increases, or so on,” said Jorge Huerta, board member and construction science senior.
Megan Matter, SAFAB chair and human resources senior, said students were also encouraged to weigh in.
“We received lots of different student opinions on which departments we should and should not approve,” Matter said. “Those are super helpful for us to build perspective. If one of us hasn’t dealt with a certain department as strongly as some students have, then they can tell you how much it means to them.”
SAFAB plays an important role in connecting the departments with A&M students, said Molly Kurth, board member and marketing junior.
“It’s important to have SAFAB because these departments know that they are here to serve the students and they want our input,” Kurth said. “Without the advisory board, I believe it would be a lot more difficult for the departments to receive that input. Without the board, I believe these departments would be severely uninformed about the students’ wants.”
Kurth said fees affect a significant portion of student affairs, making the representation of student opinion that much more important.
“You don’t want to make any rash decisions, and that’s the reason we seek out the student opinion” Kurth said. “Certainly there’s a lot at stake in terms of student affairs and the activities within the department.”
Since the board is made up of students, Matter said it offers the vice president for student affairs a balanced representation of what the student body wants.
“We are the primary resource for [A&M] and we are involved daily with these activities,” Matter said. “We are the ones who run it, give them money, basically the support system. It’s our job and our responsibility to decide what we’re paying for.”
Matter said SAFAB puts the requests for funding in order of priority to help ensure the most important ones are passed.
Only the first portion of SAFAB deliberation is open to students. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Koldus 117.