Decision Regarding $50 Raise in Student Activity Fee To Be Delayed until Spring of 2009

The Student Budget Board held a forum last Friday to discuss a potential $50 increase in the student activity fee.

Although no long-term decision has been made, it has been decided that the SGA’s vote on the matter will be delayed until the spring semester of 2009.

Sophomore Jason Elliott, the president of the SBB, had a lot to say about the context for the proposed change. “We originally thought about raising the student activity fee because the requests from clubs were $10,000 above what we are allowed to give, which is about $25,000 per semester,” he said.

“The result was a decrease in every student organization’s budget by 30 percent,” Elliott continued. “The organizations were quite irate.”

The proposed raised fee is an effort to avoid having to encounter this problem during upcoming semesters.

Students were not silent about this semester’s budget cuts. “SBB should be comprised of a member of each organization, or at least someone that is knowledgeable about what each of the clubs need,” said senior Heidi Gonyea. “When I have to put $100 of my own money into an organization [Alpha Psi] each year, there is a problem.”

First-year student Zachary VanWinkle agreed: “I am not opposed to an increase in the student activities fee, but I would like to be ensured that the money they currently have is being used efficiently and wisely.”

Goynea cloncluded, “The school may eventually be getting an extra $50 from each student for student activities, but I doubt some organizations will see even a penny of that increase."

Although SBB believes that unnecessary requests and budget padding is a significant contributor to the original problem, it is not ignoring student concerns about the unfair distribution of funds.

Starting this semester, the president and treasurer of each club can have an opportunity to sit with the SBB and go over the club’s budget in order to have a chance to justify their need for each item and to communicate the club’s budgetary priorities.

“We hope that this will prevent ill-directed and unnecessary anger towards SBB, because people will have had a chance to meet with us,” Elliott said. “If we could have eliminated the problem of budget padding, then this problem wouldn’t have arisen, at least not to this degree.”

Another concern arises from the ease with which students can create their own clubs, which results in an abundance of organizations requesting funding. “I'm the President for AAA,” said junior Jahan Monirian. “I understand the need to raise the activity fee, but it would be nice if there was a set number of clubs or some way to filter out clubs which aren't bringing much to the table.”

Other students have focused on the benefits of club participation, asserting that they far outweigh the costs involved in raising the fee. “I am president of two clubs, and quasi-active in about three others,” said junior Russell Holl. “I definitely care about them. I think clubs are a great outlet.”

Sophomore Brittany Carpenter agreed. “I think clubs are a very important part of a school, especially one as small and homogenous as Manchester,” Carpenter said. “Although it is getting more and more important to keep costs low at our school, clubs increase opportunity and awareness on a campus in many different ways, and it is difficult to put a price on that.”

One unresolved issue that was brought up during the forum involved the disparity with which the raised fee will affect some students, particularly international students and students from lower socio-economic classes.

Although student opinions regarding the matter are diverse and strongly held, attendance at the forum was low. “There were only about 10 students there, so either people didn’t know about it or didn’t care,” Elliott said. “This, of course, is also a big issue.”

“One student, Katie McCann, said to me that she felt honored to have even been asked her opinion about it,” Elliott said. “It is not usually the case that students are asked for their feedback in tuition and room and board rate changes, but we gave them a chance to speak their opinion about this fee.”

(This article appeared in the March 7 edition of The Oak Leaves)