Student fees might go up an additional $2.68 next year, but it has nothing to do with sustainability.
The U Board of Trustees will decide Tuesday whether or not to increase the existing Student Publications Fee by $1.34 per semester. All that is known for certain about the fee increase is that it will create a new council to help oversee student publications.
According to an e-mail from Ann Darling, chairwoman of the communication department, the fee would create a new council called the University Student Media Council to replace the Publication Council, the existing team of faculty and students that oversees student media. However, details about the new council have not been made public.
“It seems problematic to increase fees when it’s not clear how the money will be spent,” said Dustin Gardiner, editor in chief of The Daily Utah Chronicle, one of several student publications that receive funding from the existing fee.
Gardiner said it is unfair for the administration to ask students to fund something without knowing exactly what it is or where the money will go. He said all he has heard is that the new council would include an intermediary administrator between student publications and the council, which might pressure students to please the administration.
“We already have a Chronicle adviser. Why would we need a second person for that position?” Gardiner asked.
Jake Sorensen, general manager of The Chronicle, said the fee increase and the new council might provide advice and funding for a student-run public relations agency, as well as absorb the cost of running KUTE, the student radio station.
The station has had a bumpy past with funding. Its yearly operation costs were estimated at $20,400 in 2006, the same year the Associated Students of the University of Utah decided to cut the station’s funding. After KUTE pleaded its case, ASUU reinstated $4,500 of funding last year for the station, which was trying to get by on savings.
“Part of the student fee increase is intended to support KUTE…and helping KUTE become effective,” Sorensen said. However, there is no “solid, laid-out, step-by-step plan” for how the increase will be used, he said.
Despite the publication fee’s proposed increase being equal in dollars to the controversial sustainability fee, it has not received the same level of attention or student input before reaching the desk of the Trustees.
Patrick Reimherr, ASUU president, said students usually aren’t clued in when an existing fee might increase. Instead, Reimherr speaks on students’ behalf when approached by the higher-ups dealing with the fee, such as Paul Brinkman, associate vice president of budget and planning, who helps oversee student fee changes.
“We got a note three months ago to put (the fee) on the docket for the Board of Trustees meeting,” Brinkman said. “They’ll explain what it is there.”
Darling could not be reached for comment during the weekend.
Correction: In the original version of this article, it was misstated that the publication fee would increase by $2.50. The actual proposed increase is $2.68 or $1.34 per semester.