At the Oct. 5 SGA meeting, student body president Axel Brown and vice president Aidan Clark presented a proposition to raise the annual Student Activity Fee, which would change from $38.37 to $76.
The Student Activity Fee helps fund clubs and other organizations on campus. This proposal will be voted on by the senate next week, and, if passed, will be on the voting ballot this spring. The senate has elected to vote on the first possible increase presented, which will result in an increase of $14.34 to the current spring and fall semester fee amounts, as well as $7.17 in summer.
This means the SAF will increase from $16.06 ($8.03 in the summer) per student for fall and spring to $30.4 ($15.20 in the summer) per student.
The reason for this change is an increased need for funds, especially from clubs and organizations, and concerns about the rapidly decreasing reserves from SGA’s Carry Forward Fund, which consists of unspent funds from the Student Acitivity Fee.
“If SGA continues to draw from reserves at the current trend, without an increase in funding, we will completely run out of reserve funding by August of next year,” Clark said.
In regard to the funds pulled last year, Clark noted the reserves were at $289,263.03 at the beginning of last year, and they dropped to $157,321.31 at the beginning of this year. “As you can see, we spent about half of our reserves in one year,” he said.
After taking into account the 9% GAR tax, this change would result in a total budget of $673,892, as compared to this year’s $357,171. These funds will directly affect the Student Life Department and also what is available to clubs and organizations, which hold events such as concerts, guest speakers, ROAR Daze and Clyde’s Cupboard.
This change is guaranteed to affect all undergraduate students, but it is unclear whether it will affect graduate students as there is currently confusion as to how their student activity fees are paid with their tuition.
Greg Abukar-Duru, senator of public serivce, supports the potential increase to the fee. “And that’s kinda the main point of SGA — is to advocate for our school and the clubs around us. So if we can’t even fund them or give them resources, then what’s the point of SGA?” he said.
Senator of graduate students Bridgette Guererro agrees with Abukar-Duru. “I just also want to advocate toward the fact that we are one of the most low paying schools when it comes to student fees, and therefore we can’t offer some of the things that we want to offer,” she said.
In other news:
- Senator of sustainability Keenan Powell has stepped down from his position due to being offered a position in the office of sustainability.
- The Mountain Lion Carving Bill, which would allocate funds to carving a tree stump on campus into a mountain lion, was vetoed by Brown and indefinitely tabled by the senate.
- Vincent Dzotefe, class of 2025, was confirmed as the senator of military affairs. Dzotefe is currently serving active duty in the military as well as studying pre-med full-time.
- Senator of engineering Mason Sowanick is in the process of drafting a bill to regulate the use of AI technology on campus.
Photo from UCCS Men’s Club Soccer.