Financial officers of special fees groups are stirring.

They came out in relative force at last night’s ASSU Undergraduate Senate meeting, where last week senators enacted a bill disallowing student groups from requesting an increase in special fees beyond inflation without more stringent student body approval.

 

On Tuesday, the bill faced challenges to both its merits and the rules surrounding the vote that passed it. Some student group leaders complained of short notice to organize opposition to the bill, and said the legislation would hinder their ability to collect special fees money and provide programming to students.

 

But authors of the bill maintained that it is a necessary step to reducing the rate of students’ requesting refunds on their special fees, curbing spending out of the ASSU buffer fund and promoting greater student body engagement with the process of funding student groups.

Matt McLaughlin ’08, the ASSU financial manager, emphasized that this single piece of legislation is unlikely to leverage large-scale positive change. “I think that the special fees won’t decrease,” he said. “Refund rates, we hope, will at least remain constant, but there are a whole series of other reforms. This is by no means the lynchpin.”

Special Fees Bill Needs More Student Input, F.O. Says

Minh Dan Vuong ’11, the financial officer for Alternative Spring Break, last night registered his disappointment and urged the Senate to reconsider its decision, this time with more student input.

According to Vuong, the one week’s notice that financial officers received prior to the bill’s passage — per the Senate’s previous notice rules — was not enough for groups to mobilize a response. Additionally, he claimed, the information session held by the Appropriations Committee one day after the bill passed was unacceptable and failed to consider the voices of VSOs.

“This bill creates a bunch of unintended consequences,” Vuong told the body. “Groups, for instance, will have incentive to overstate their costs.”

Stephanie Epps ‘10, former chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and current Black Student Union (BSU) co-president, argued that the new legislation opens a “Pandora’s box” by discouraging moderation. In light of the legislation, Epps suggested that many student groups will be re-evaluating their budgets and asking for more money from special fees than they did previously.

“For the goal that you are trying to serve, it is doing the exact opposite,” Epps said. “You’re not going to offset the student activities fee at all. You’re going to increase it by a lot.”

According to Senator Alex Katz ’12, Administration and Rules Committee chair, the bill was created in the spirit of allowing students more fiscal control to determine student groups funding.

“Special fees now represents $2.5 million,” Katz said, referring to the amount of financial pressure special fees put on each student at $119 per quarter — the most recent figure available as the accounting of refund requests continues.

“My belief, and the belief of many senators here, is that the student body deserves more control over the way our money is spent,” he added.

Senator Shelley Gao ’11 rebuffed “minority interest groups” in the special fees process, saying she supports the ordinary student who may not have time to attend meetings and dictate his or her interests.

“I am representing the silent majority,” Gao said.

Tommy Tobin ‘10, director of the student group SPOON, challenged Gao’s position, suggesting that issues concerning special fees and refund rates are more reflective of an uneducated student body rather than the public’s “tacit approval [of the bill and special fees].”

Other senators stood by the bill as an effective step along a path toward increasing transparency and allowing students more fiscal control.

“This isn’t a bad bill,” said Anton Zietsman ’12, chair of the Appropriations Committee. “We’re making special fees groups accountable to the student body.”

“I just can’t see how this bill introduces the possibility that any group that’s legitimate does not receive funding,” Senator Adam Creasman ’11 added.

Although many VSO leaders are dubious about the prospects of the bill’s success in deflating special fees costs — and refund rates, for that matter — Senate Chair Varun Sivaram ’11 said the bill had the potential to be beneficial.

“The bill was intended to curb the growth of special fees. If it is the case that without this bill, special fees would have grown more, then the bill has succeeded,” Sivaram said.

Alluding to the possibility of students’ again approving all special fees groups with budgets of astronomical proportions, Senator Mohammad Ali ’10 asked, “What’s the contingency plan if and when the bill fails?”

“This is one plank,” Katz said, adding that the bill represents a small piece in a much larger framework for reform.

Still, many in attendance expressed worry that the bill’s approval was too hasty. Michael Tubbs ’12 suggested that the bill does not get at “real pragmatic solutions” and that more research ought to be done to decipher student opinion on special fees concerns.

Limón’s Status Still Without A Verdict: Senator or Not?

To add to the meeting’s legislative frustrations, the status of former Senator Daniel Limón ’12 has yet to be resolved, making voting procedures at best confusing and laborious for the group as a whole.

After Limón took a leave of absence during fall quarter, he expected to return with ease to his position in the association. However, the ambiguity of his situation persists as the Senate decides whether or not he may constitutionally rejoin the ranks without issue.

In a 10-4 re-vote for the special fees bill that excluded the Senate’s former 15th member, Limón, the bill was passed for a second time, a favorable win for most senators.

In addition, the Senate confirmed graduate student Elicia Blackford as executive director of the Student Service Division; also, all funding bills on the table were approved.

As donations toward relief for the Haiti earthquake level off, Executive team members said they are considering adding another position to the cabinet that would address humanitarian aid concerns. ASSU President David Gobaud, a coterminal student in computer science, has said he would move $500 from his salary to create the position.