After heated discussion by the Associated Students Inc. Senate Wednesday, a proposed 10 percent student fee increase ultimately failed.
The amendment, proposed by Senator-at-Large Erin Swetland, was strongly opposed by the majority of the Senate.
“We need to try and maintain student fee levels this year…and make a friendly adjustment,” said Senator-at-Large Guido D’Onofrio. “I want to send a message to students that we do not want to increase fees.”
Sen. Christopher Chavez of the College of Liberal Arts was one of many who voted against the amendment.
“I do not want the fees to go up. They need to go towards education,” Chavez said.
Sen. Sharlene Risdon of the College of Business Administration pointed out that student fees come with college territory.
“We need to be realistic,” Risdon said. “There is no way of preventing a fee increase.”
The proposed amendment for an increase in student fees did not carry over after two voting sessions.
Roman Kochan, the dean of Library Services, also spoke to the Senate regarding the recent University Library developments.
“The first floor and the lower level are complete,” Kochan said. “We want to have the renovation complete by the end of 2007.”
Kochan announced plans for the library in the future, such as extended hours on Friday and Saturday nights. He also proposed discussing with the music and art departments to include poetry readings and music performances in the library.
“I would like to make it more of a place to hang out,” Kochan said.
Kochan also mentioned the future technological developments, such as more work stations for students, similar to the Spidell Electronic Classroom.
“We hope to have more work stations for students who are doing group work…additional electronic capacity, an upgraded wireless system and an extended Starbucks with picnic tables and wireless for the outside areas,” he said.
In regards to the inaccessibility of the library books, Kochan explained that while the stacks are in fact vacant for the second and third floors (which are closed to students), they have created a paging system for the materials.
“If you ask for it, it will be paged,” he said. “It is not the best, but it is access.”
Kochan also noted that if the paging system is efficient, the library staff will try it out and it could become a regular service the library could offer.
