By Samuel Rubenfeld
The Student Government Association unanimously approved a $36 annual increase in student activity fees that would go into effect next academic year-if the increase is approved by University administration.
The money would go directly into the SGA’s coffers so they can dole it out to clubs. Students pay $65 in student activity fees each semester; of that, SGA receives $600,000 to appropriate for clubs during budget weekend. They also receive “census money,” $9 per student per semester. This semester, the SGA received about $62,000 in census money, said Kate Legnetti, the SGA Comptroller.
Student Affairs takes the rest of the student activity fee, where it’s dispersed amongst the Office of Student Leadership and Activities and other groups. The legislation would increase the SGA’s “census money” to $27, 98 percent of which the SGA would control. An amendment to put all of the increase in SGA control did not pass.
“We want our clubs to stay active,” said Brian Marquis, the SGA’s fundraising chair who co-wrote the legislation. “The reason we have defunct clubs is because some of them don’t have the money to put on events.”
Now that it passed, SGA leadership will sit down with Sandra Johnson, vice president for Student Affairs, and together they will present it to President Stuart Rabinowitz.
Should President Rabinowitz’s office approve it, SGA could see “roughly” $270,000 in new revenue, giving the Appropriations Committee around $1 million to hand out to clubs over the course of the academic year. The University’s 144 clubs asked for $1.7 million during the latest budget go-round; SGA appropriated $614,000.
The unanimous vote on the increase was seen as a strong move, and SGA expects its consensus to ring loudly in the ears of administrators. “Now maybe people will take SGA seriously,” said SGA President Peter DiSilvio.
DiSilvio said he was here for the previous activity fee increase, and the group “set the bar high” with the last activity fee hike. “It was nice to have a group meet that bar,” he said.
SGA wants to use the money in a myriad of ways. “We want to fund more speakers to come to campus,” said Jared Berry, the vice president. “We want to get new computers into all club offices. The increase in general will hopefully help a lot more clubs and organizations that want to do more programs.”
Given the recession and the decreasing access to student loans, Berry defended the fee increases as necessary. “As former Crew President Gary Staurowsky put it last night, ‘I believe every dollar we put towards clubs and organizations increases [the clout] of our degree.'”
Legnetti emphasized that despite an increase in club funding, it doesn’t mean they can run through money with reckless abandon. “This is not a blank check for clubs,” she said. “All of the regulations [on funding] will still stand.”
Assistant News Editor Christina Smith contributed reporting for this story.