Student Government Senate passed the 2010 Class Gift Project resolution to add a $30 fee to graduating seniors’ fee bills last Wednesday after the Senate eliminated the opt-out clause.The opt-out clause would have given graduating seniors the chance not to pay the $30 fee for a brick on the Parade Ground.The SG Senate passed the resolution, 36-9, but the project must still be approved by Chancellor Michael Martin.Tiffany Compagno, Class Gift Committee chair, said she put the resolution to a Senate vote to have student input.”We at least wanted students to be represented,” Compagno said. “The resolution is going to be attached to the memo to the chancellor to see that the Senate was behind it.”A $30 fee will apply to every graduating senior’s fee bills if Martin approves the resolution — including class of 2010 seniors. College of Arts and Sciences Senator Andy Palermo made an amendment to the resolution to include the opt-out clause, but Senate repealed it at last Wednesday’s meeting.Compango said the Senate decided to eliminate the opt-out clause after speaking with administrators and architects.”The committee that approves all campus development would’ve rejected it if there had been an opt-out clause because there’d be too much wiggle room,” Compagno said.The fee would be $30 for each student if every student participates, but it would increase if fewer students took part.”They said the project wouldn’t be sustainable with the opt-out clause because there may come a time when no one participates,” Compagno said.The only students who won’t have to pay the fee will be students who are already exempt from other fees because of financial hardships.Drew Prestridge, College of Arts and Sciences senator, is on the Class Gift Committee and worked in favor of passing the Senate resolution. “Hopefully it is going to be something very long lasting that will become an icon on our campus,” Prestridge said. “Students will be able to see something tangible come out of their student fees with this project.”Palermo said he loves the project, but felt the Class Gift Committee handled it wrong.”I love the project, and I want my name on a brick so I can come back and show people,” Palermo said. “But I think we should be going to the students and asking their opinion.”Former SG President Colorado Robertson said the project was supposed to be self-sustaining and finance the following year’s project. “I think after a couple of years it would’ve caught on,” Robertson said. “It would have been nice if it had continued the way we imagined it.Lane Fryou, sociology senior, said she wouldn’t mind paying the $30 fee because it would create a legacy at the University. “There are a lot worse things that they charge us for,” Fryou said. “But that’s not a fee I would mind paying.”
 
 
 
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