The Student Senate will consider legislation Wednesday night that could put three separate proposals on the spring election ballot to increase the student fees The Daily Reveille, Tiger TV and KLSU receive.
The Student Senate must approve all student fee increases at the University before students have the opportunity to vote on them. Student fee increases must be approved by the Finance Committee, but the three proposals before the Senate on Wednesday night will have been through an additional three committees.
“We wanted to ensure that as many people as possible have touched these bills and voiced their opinion,” said Brandon Smith, speaker of the senate.
The only committee that can officially stop the legislation from going before the full senate is the Finance Committee. And that committee approved all three bills last week.
If the senate approves the bills, they will appear on the spring ballot when students vote for Student Government president, vice president and other major offices.
Smith said he learned during the Union fee increase in 2003 that rushing bills through the senate “can come back to haunt you.”
He said the experience prompted him to send the bills to three of the six senate committees — Finance, Students’ Rights and Welfare and Governmental Relations — for advisory opinions.
“We hope to set the precedent to ensure that future leadership uses all of the tools they have to thoroughly address issues of campus-wide magnitude,” Smith said. “This is the same procedure you would find in any legislative body, all the way up to the federal government.
Daniel Nunes, senator for the College of Arts and Sciences and a political science junior, said he decided to sponsor the bill for Tiger TV because he thinks the student-run television station needs to increase its budget.
“Tiger TV provides a great service to the University and is a great educational tool, but they need money for equipment,” Nunes said.
Nunes said he is glad the senate has asked multiple committees to look at the bills.
“There are different senators looking into the bills to ensure that members are researching the benefits of the bills and making sure the money goes where it needs to go,” Nunes said.
CC Dubois, vice chair of the Students’ Rights and Welfare Committee, said she wrote the bill for The Daily Reveille after speaking with Scott Sternberg, the newspaper’s editor in chief.
“After talking to Scott and looking at the research, it became obvious to me that [The Daily Reveille] had a tremendous need for funds,” Dubois said.
DuBois said she thinks having multiple committees look at the bills has been advantageous because it has increased the depth of the debate.
“These committee meetings have allowed us to answer questions in a more one-on-one basis,” Dubois said. “It has also given students more chances to sit in and voice their opinions.”
Nunes said he thinks the senate’s approach to the bills has given students a chance to see what their government is doing for them.
“I hope this shows how much Student Government does and how much they care about the students,” Nunes said.