ASUU leaders are preparing to present a student fee increase to the U Board of Trustees next week, even though the General Assembly and Senate have not voted on a final version of the bill.
“The ASUU General Assembly and the Senate have already approved a fee increase in relation to the Sustainable Campus Initiative,” said Patrick Reimherr, president of the Associated Students of the University of Utah. “I will go forward and recommend an increase to the Board of Regents.”
Reimherr said he feels comfortable moving forward even though the bodies have not approved a final version of the bill because the two bills that passed in the Assembly and Senate proposed a $2.50 fee increase, though the versions differed over whether the fee would be suspended and reevaluated in several years. Reimherr will present the fee increase to the Trustees on Tuesday. If it passes, the fee proposal must be approved by the Utah Board of Regents at the end of the month before being implemented.
Parker Ence, representative from the School of Business, said the student feedback he has received indicates that students are still looking to add their input.
“I would ask Patrick how important it is to get the student opinions in raising fees,” Ence said. “It doesn’t matter what we do now as a student body. We can talk about the initiative and can even vote against it. But for all intensive purposes, students no longer have input into this issue because Patrick is going to the Board regardless of what we say.” ASUU legislators have spent the past few days trying to figure out ways to vote on the final version of the proposal and allow student input before the bill is presented to the Board.
On Tuesday, Ence suggested that ASUU could try putting the issue on the general election ballot. Kariann Hibbard, elections registrar for ASUU, said a general referendum is not an option.
“The general election ballot is only for things that students can actually decide,” Hibbard said. “The legislators want to use the ballot to gauge student opinion. The outcome of the vote would not determine what would happen with the fee increase, and as a result, it cannot be put on the ballot.”
At a reconciliation meeting Monday night, legislators were told they could vote via an electronic meeting prior to it being presented to the Board of Trustees. Reimherr said an electronic meeting in the Assembly is unconstitutional according to RedBook, the student constitution.
“We are trying to evaluate other ways to get student input. We will schedule an in-person meeting, but the time and date of that meeting have not been determined,” Reimherr said.
Reimherr said the meeting might not take place until after the Board of Regents meet, even though a fee increase based on his recommendation might already be in place.
“This legislation has already been presented,” said Josh Lee, representative from the College of Science and sponsor of the bill in the Assembly. “Students can still e-mail their representatives with input. They will then give that input to Patrick for his presentation to the Board. This is now in the hands of the Board of Regents. They determine the fee increase.”
Some ASUU leaders still think students should have more say in the matter.
“The (ASUU) administration led us to believe that we would be able to have a say in the fee increase when they knew it wasn’t true,” said Ali Amundsen, senator from the College of Health.