The SUU Student Fee Review Committee voted to reject the Study Abroad program’s request to receive a $2-per-semester student fee Thursday morning.
‘I think our number one criteria with student fees was the number of students it affects,’ SUUSA President Cody Alderson said.
Most of the committee agreed the fee would not go toward enough students to justify charging every student $2 per semester.
Student Involvement and Leadership Director Keri Mecham said she could see the Study Abroad program receiving a student fee in the future if more students became involved, ‘especially in the liberal arts direction (SUU is) going.’
Student Fee Review Committee member Graham Cheever disagreed, and said if more students become involved with study abroad, each student will only get a small amount of money.
‘The problem with that is that if they got to the point where it was required or even just got more students to participate, the student fee would become much less effective,’ he said. ‘The reason it is so effective now is because not a lot of students are doing it, so a lot of small student fees can make a kind of big (contribution).’
International Outreach Director Alla Paroiatnikova requested the fee because she said participating in study abroad is becoming more expected of students.
Paroiatnikova said she was ‘shocked’ when she heard the committee was not in favor of the student fee.
Although the committee’s decision is not final, they do send their recommendations of which fees to approve to the President’s Council.
The committee did, however, vote to recommend the 50-cent proposed student fee increase for the music department.
The fee is currently $2 per student per semester, but the department asked for a higher fee because of both the increased number of concerts offered by the department and the increase in music costs.
Cheever said he had been to some of the Music Department’s concerts and they were ‘usually pretty packed.’
The committee also continued discussion on the Gerald R. Sherratt Library’s request for a $5 student fee.
Mecham, however, said out of any of the departments or programs that made fee requests, those involved with the library request ‘seemed to have done the most homework.’
Alderson said he was concerned that the money from the fee may not go to funding databases.
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