The Missouri Students Association is working on creating an interactive graphic showing where student fees are allocated and what benefits students have because of those allocations.
“The general idea is to make an easy-to-read graphic that is appealing to the eye and explains what the fees are for,” MSA Budget Committee member Tim Cunningham said.
Cunningham brought the idea to MSA and wrote the legislation to create the student-fee graphic after discussing it at a committee meeting.
“I was talking Vicky Riback Wilson, the fellowship coordinator, and students were asking her where the student fees go,” Cunningham said. “She found out I was in MSA, and she suggested that we make it easy to see where the student fee money goes.”
Director of Student Communications Victoria Craig said they are trying to advertise what the fees are, and how they’re spent.
“Students have to pay fees for the (Student Recreation Complex) and the (Student Health Center), and they wonder what they get out of paying the fees,” Craig said. “This is how we can relate it to students.”
MSA President Eric Woods said they want to present the fees in a way that is accessible to students.
“We’re trying to find ways to make a breakdown of student fees and show what each fee is specifically and how much of their money goes to it,” Woods said.
Craig said the graphic will show how student organizations are spending the fees because it is important students know how their money is being spent.
The breakdown will be posted to the MSA website, Woods said. It will be an interactive graphic similar to a pie chart showing where all the student fees go and what services students receive from each fee.
Cunningham said some fees are more apparent than others.
“Some fees such as the Rec Center and Student Health fee are very apparent and visible,” Cunningham said. “Others are less apparent, such as the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, an organization that helps educate students about the political process as well as actively lobbies for student interests.”
Cunningham said he supplied the information about the fees for the website, and web developers were working on designing the graphic and putting it on the website. They will create a separate tab for students to click on to look at the graphic.
Besides creating an online graphic, Woods said they have another idea in the works.
“We’d like to publish informational pamphlets about the student fee breakdown and include them in the freshmen residence hall handouts they receive in their rooms,” Woods said.
Woods said they are still working on completing the graphic for the website, but it will be finished by the end of the semester.