University President Jane Close Conoley will make the final decision on the University Student Union fee adjustment once she receives the official copy of the Student Fee Advisory Committee’s recommendation.
The Student Fee Advisory Committee passed a motion Friday to recommend that Conoley uphold the student vote against the fee increase.
“Over 34 percent of students voting is a pretty clear message,” Associated Student Inc. President Joseph Phillips said after the meeting.
Phillips motioned that the Student Fee Advisory Committee recommend that Conoly dismiss a USU fee increase at this time, as voted by the students last week. ASI Vice President Nayiri Baghdassarian seconded the motion. All voting members were in favor of the motion, except for two members who voted to abstain.
Baghdassarian and Phillips said that ASI does not intend to put a USU fee increase to vote for at least a year.
“We as ASI don’t want to consider anything for another year,” Baghdassarian said in regards to any USU fee increase. “But if [President Conoley] comes up with something better, we support that.”
Carmen Taylor, the Student Fee Advisory Fee Committee chair and the Vice President of Student Services, said that the USU fee qualifies as a Category 2 fee under Executive order 1054 for the university.
“I think for the students the initial decision will feel like they’ve been confirmed,” Taylor said. “But we probably haven’t given enough consideration to what it will mean to the union.
Phillips said that he intends to speak with ASI Executive Director Richard Haller and USU director Dave Edwards about addressing concerns of the USU infrastructure. ASI Public Defender, Dale Lendrum said during the meeting that he recommended no fee adjustment until all “bodies involved” discuss the matter together.
“We need to go back and examine how we’re going to make the necessary repairs,” Lendrum said. “Just because the referendum didn’t pass, doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to do the repairs.”
Lendrum said that ASI should examine its operating budget and develop “some creative fundraising” to avoid proposing another referendum.
Conoley said via telephone after the voting results were announced last week that she would expect a “negative recommendation” from the Student Fee Advisory Committee due to such a large majority vote. She said that she would most likely accept such recommendation.
Taylor said that she has a draft of the Student Fee Advisory Committee recommendation on her desk. She said that she would finalize it and send it to Conoley in “a couple days.”
