The ASUU General Assembly passed the Campus Sustainability Initiative on Tuesday night, bringing with it a proposal to raise student fees.
“We must provide enough money to get the project going,” said Josh Lee, representative from the College of Science and the sponsor of the bill. “We would cap the general ASUU (reserve) fund at $150,000. Anything above that amount would be put into the Campus Sustainability Initiative fund. We would then use a student fee increase of $2.50 to provide a sustainable source of income.”
On Monday night, the Senate Executive Committee amended the original proposal to have zero fee increase but to allocate money from the Associated Students of the University of Utah general reserve fund toward sustainable projects. Dallas Hamilton, co-director of the ASUU sustainability board, said that a onetime donation is just not enough.
“If we only approve a onetime fund, we are setting ourselves up for failure,” he said. “We have to have a sustainable source of revenue in order to fund projects over many years.”
Lee said the general fund is generated from leftover student fees. After all fees have been allocated in the ASUU budget, the remaining money is stored in the general reserve.
The proposal passed by the Assembly would institute a $2.50 student fee each semester and allow the initiative to tap the general fund for three years and then submit to an audit. At that point student government leaders would determine if they would continue to draw from the fund or use student fees as their sole source of income.
The vote on the initiative was nearly unanimous, with only Rep. Morgan Brewer from the College of Education voting against the proposal. Brewer raised objections about increasing the burden on students.
“Raising student fees is not OK,” she said. “I would rather that they take the general fund money as a onetime funding option and see what they do with the first year. With so many remaining questions, we cannot in good faith support the increase.”
Rep. Riann Robbins of the College of Health disagreed.
“I don’t think that students would be upset with an increase of student fees,” she said. “As long as it is only a few dollars, it is not that big of a deal. We have to make the first move and show that we are in support of the initiative.”
During the debate, representatives were asked how many of the voting members had sought feedback from their colleges. Of the 40 representatives present, only seven said that they had done so. Some representatives said that they had gotten e-mails from students in their colleges.
The resolution will now go to the Senate, where it is expected to meet strong resistance.
Kasi Goodwin, senator from the College of Science, said the ASUU Senate has reservations about increasing student fees. Monday night, Senate leaders came up with a compromise that eliminated the need for an increase. The proposal would use the general fund as a onetime funding source, and an audit would take place at the end of the year to evaluate progress on the initiative.
“My reservations are about accountability,” Goodwin said. “The initiative should be willing to take the initial start-up funding and show how they are going to use it. Once they show how many students are involved and that they can make the projects actually work, then we can evaluate a student fee increase.”
The Senate will vote on the proposal Thursday.
Tyler CobbDallas Hamilton, co-director of the ASUU satiability board, speaks to the ASUU Assembly about the proposed satiability fee. The Assembly passed a $2.50 fee increase for satiability.