Editor’s Note: Student Media is requesting an increase in student-fee funding for both the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years. The Technician is a part of Student Media.
Student fee increases for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, which for the first time are now being proposed two years in advance instead of one, have undergone the first few rounds of consideration and alteration before they will ultimately be voted on by the UNC Board of Governors in February.
Alex Grindstaff, the Student Senate President, the Co-Chair of the Student Fee Review Committee and a senior in biological sciences, said the largest and most significant increase that was requested this year came from Student Health Services, which is asking for an additional $29.50 per student next year and $32.50 more for the 2016-17 year in part to help fund the expansion of the Counseling Center to Centennial Campus.
“In the beginning and throughout the entire process we were pretty unanimous about the Student Health fee,” Grindstaff said. “The Counseling Center was the biggest one that we all agreed on needed something. Currently, if it didn’t hire new counselors, they wouldn’t make their accreditation.”
Waiting times are an area of concern for the Counseling Center, requiring them to request more money. With the current number of people the center currently employees it takes students up to 10 days to get in to see a counselor, Grindstaff said.
Student Health Services is also requesting money to expand the Counseling Center to Centennial Campus. In addition to bringing counselors across campus, Student Health will soon begin providing dental services on Centennial Campus that will be open to the public as a way to bring in additional revenue and make Student Health and Counseling services more self-sustaining.
Student activities groups submitted requests for increases to the amount of money they receive from students in the form of student fees earlier this year.
Student Senate reviewed, amended and voted on its suggested fee increases Wednesday, the University Graduate Student Associate and the Inter-Residence Council did the same on Monday, Sept. 29. These amended proposal suggestions were then reviewed by the Student Fee Review Committee on Friday, which amended and passed new recommendations once again.
David Fiala, president of the UGSA, graduate member of the Student Fee Review Committee and a graduate student of computer science, said every committee also passed the Student Legal Services proposal as it was submitted. This was due to an agreement that the salaries of all three attorneys employed by Student Legal Services would be paid at a comparable legal practice.
“The director of Student Legal Services makes less money than the lowest paid UNC lawyer,” Fiala said.
The Student Fee Review Committee approved $7.56 out of the originally proposed $13 increase for student programs and arts.
“I wanted to see more for the arts,” Grindstaff said. “Just because our arts program is fantastic, and the fees that we do pay are why tickets to ARTS NC STATE events are so cheap to students, but now that they are not getting fully funded … ticket pricing for the arts will probably go up.”
Fiala said this year was a challenge for everyone on the Student Fee Review Committee because this is the first time the committee has looked at two years of fee increases at once.
“I think I speak for everyone in that room when I say this was a horrible idea,” Fiala said. “It’s a challenge for us because people are submitting these proposals in let’s say, January, and they are not being asked to make a projection for two years in advance that will not get reviewed until September…These are projections that are going to have to hold them three years out, and they have no idea how climate is going to change.”
The UNC Board of Governors capped the amount that student fees could increase for next year at no more than 5 percent more than the $1,129.21 full-time students paid in fees for the 2014-15 school year. After the Student Fee Review Committees recommendations, the proposed increases stand at a 3.91 percent increase for 2015-16 and a 3.5 percent increase for 2016-17.
Other fees approved for the 2015-16 school year that will be passed on to Chancellor Randy Woodson later this month include a $6.57 increase for Education and Technology for the expansion of the DELTA Testing Center and a $1 increase to the Sustainability to fund environmentally friendly initiatives on campus.
The committee approved $4.95 out of University Recreation’s original request of $8.85. The $4.95 will cover annual increases, but the committee did not approve the $3.90 request to fund Athletic Training Services, according to the unofficial minutes from the office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.
These numbers are not yet final. The next step for the fees will be for the Tuition and Fees Conference Committee to combine tuition and fee recommendations and present them to Woodson.
