The Student Fee Review Committee recommended a 0.78 percent increase in undergraduate student fees for the fiscal year 2012 to the UM System Board of Curators.
Six of the 18 student fee areas were recommended for an increase; two were for a decrease and nine for no change.
Most of the student fee increases were due to increasing costs and reductions in funding from other areas, SFRC Chairman Bryan Goers said.
“The offices and organizations requesting and receiving fee increases were facing potential salary increases next year and most of them had not received increases to their fees in a few years,” Goers said.
The Counseling Center is receiving the largest increase in student fees percentage-wise with a 21 percent increase. The percentage equates to a $1.30 increase, totaling a $7.79 fee.
“When (students) see a large percentage, they freak out,” said Matt Sheppard, new Secretary of Auxiliaries and member of the SFRC Committee. “Right now, the Counseling Center has seven less counselors than they should.”
According to the legislation, the mission of the Counseling Center is vital to the safety and betterment of students on campus and recommends more marketing, assuming the center can handle the influx of students.
Students will also see a 1.5 percent increase in their student health fee, equaling a $1.39 increase.
“A lot of students use (Health Center) services and there are a lot who do not as well,” Goers said. “(SFRC) spent a lot of time talking about this and eventually recommended that they should receive an inflationary increase.”
A 2.3 percent decrease in the Org student fee has also been approved due to large amounts of carryover. In the past, SFRC had asked Org to take control of their carryover so students were receiving services while in school and not funding future years, Goers said.
“No action, that we saw, had been taken on Org’s part so we decided to reduce their funding and recommended to future committees to restore it if they do take action to reduce the carry forward,” he said.
The diversity fee has also had a past of large carryover, but will see no change in the 2012 fiscal year.
Although students will not see a change in the diversity fee, there are internal changes within the fee. How the fee is allocated to organizations will be changed to better use the money the fee generates, Goers said.
The diversity fee is divided between multiple organizations. Currently, 45 percent is allocated to the Legion of Black Collegians, 20 percent to the Asian American Association, 15 percent to the Hispanic American Leader Organization, 15 percent to Four Front, 5 percent to Triangle Coalition and the remainder is allocated to various student organizations and staff funding.
The internal changes will make the allocated percentage of the Triangle Coalition and Four Front both 10 percent to help reduce carryover, Goers said.
“The students in these organizations have signed off on the changes as well and because there were students involved in these changes the committee felt comfortable not making any changes to the fee and seeing how the internal changes work out,” he said in an e-mail. “We might recommend that internal changes should take place to help reduce carry forward but we do not tell organizations and offices how to spend the money they are allocated from student fees.”
