Student Government opted to not raise student fees saying the budget environment was not appropriate for further increases, but did allocate money for minority awareness.
The Senate met late into the night as they wrangled with adding a student fee for national newspapers and voted overwhelmingly against Wednesday. Senators also decided to give $1,000 to the GLBT center for T-shirts meant to raise awareness for those fighting for equal rights.
A representative from USA Today met with campus officials and Senators pitching the idea of adding distribution points for USA Today, the N.Y. Times and the News & Observer.
After a presentation by a USA Today saleswoman before the Senate Wednesday and following heated debate, representatives decided the USA Today program was a good one, but that the time is not right.
“We thought it was a great program because it has been proven to be successful in other colleges like Penn State, Florida and Cornell. Our problem with it, however, is that with the 15.7 percent budget cut – that is permanent I might add – that N.C. State just received, we just felt like it wasn’t the right time for us to ask the student body for this,” Brad Poston, a junior in human biology and CALS Senator, said.
Although the fee would have been small on an individual student basis, the program would have totaled more than $100,000.
If the University had more funding at its disposal, Poston said the outcome could have been different.
“If we were in a more financially sound state, then we would bring this bill up again. But right now we don’t want to tack on another fee when we are already in trouble,” Poston said.
Zack Kenz, a graduate student in applied mathematics, spoke for about three minutes before the Senate began debating on the subject. He was student body president of his undergraduate college where he helped enact the program. He told the Senate of his experience.
Kenz admitted the demographic was different at his undergraduate – mostly lending to the fact that it was smaller and finances were handled differently. He said, though, the program was more of a want, not a need. The economic times call for those in charge of allocating funds and asking students for money to only consider things that are of dire need, according to Kenz.
“The general thing for me is we have seen some pretty significant fee increases,” Kenz said.
Kenz came to N.C. State in the fall of 2008, and since then he said student fees have increased by 31 percent.
On a related subject, administrators and student leaders are in the throws of formulating a recommendation for tuition increase next academic year.
The suggested increase will most likely be the current maximum of 6.5 percent, according to Student Body President Chandler Thompson. However, that depends on one unknown variable: information from general admissions.
Tuition has gone up 33.5 percent since 2008, and fees have gone up $459,” Thompson said.
Thompson has been working with Provost Warwick Arden on their suggestion for an increase. They have their final meeting Monday.
Their suggestion is that, though – a suggestion. It will go through channels for further approvals until it reaches the legislature in downtown Raleigh where they have the final say.
The suggestion made at the University level is usually heeded throughout the approval process, though, according to Patrick Devore, a senior in meteorology who has attended the previous three meetings with Thompson and Arden.
The Senate-approved allocation of $1,000 toward “diversity T-shirts” will come to fruition Oct. 11 when they will be available free of charge to students in the Brickyard.
T-shirt distribution will coincide with October’s GLBT month.
Funding for the shirts came from the Student Senate’s finance committee, according to senior in sociology and Senator Buddy Bryson. The finance committee allocates monies not spend by previous Student Government administrations.
