This fall an ad-hoc committee of the Student Communications Board (SCB) was formed. The SCB had recognized the rapidly dwindling value of our Student Activity Fee (SAF). It constitutes the majority of funding for our student groups. This fee is paid for and distributed by the students. The fee has not been raised in roughly seven years. Our money is now at a very low point. We, the students, are responsible for updating the SAF and insuring that it produces adequate funding for our student groups. We are now amidst a campaign to raise the fee.
We are the entire active population of the University of Southern Maine. We are the readers of the Free Press and the people who contribute to it. We make up the Board of Student Organization groups, and we are students in need of childcare facilities. We produce and listen to programs on WMPG, and we frequent the happenings of the Portland and Gorham Event Boards. The Student Activity Fee is the largest source of funding for our college culture. That funding is slipping in value, even as the dollar amount remains the same.
You will vote on this proposal in our upcoming campus referendum. The SCB committee proposes that, because all active members of the USM community would benefit from greater monetary stability, the Student Activity Fee should be attached to the nation’s natural economic fluctuations. Instead of our static student dollars generally being worth less every year, the funding should move annually in small amounts in accordance with a standard measure of local inflation. The goal is a better fee structure, with built-in adjustments to compensate for inflation’s erosion of our purchasing power. It can help create an up-to-date and viable source of student funding.
This proposal does not require a large year-to-year increase in the fee. But in order to achieve the necessary adjustment needed now, we will adjust the fee in accordance with the yearly measures of inflation starting in 1997. This will result in roughly a fifteen- percent jump in the fee next year, providing for the additional monies currently required. This part of the proposal is only to raise the current fee within the structure of the plan. It is not intended to and will not collect any extra money for the years from 1997 to the present. The total impact on each student is minimal; the raise is going to be about five dollars the first semester. After that the SAF will move with our economy’s inflation, which is a small percentage, changing incrementally every year.
You can help. Elections will be held the week of March 15th. Students have to get out and vote yes on this question. Information and petitions are available at the Student Involvement Center (the information kiosk in the middle of Woodbury) in Portland and in the Dean of Student Life in Gorham the kiosk in front of the mailboxes. Pick them up, they give a detailed representation of the plan. Gather your friends’ signatures and return the petitions. This is the best way you can show your support and gauge the acceptance of the community at large. This is your opportunity to make a difference. This plan must have proper consideration. Support your community and friends by helping to make this happen.
The only hurdle left between the concept and its execution is the consent of the student body. This comes in the form of a referendum question. It must be passed during the upcoming campus elections. The student body is not only the final hurdle but also the most significant reality check to the idea. We, the students, have to recognize our current situation and vote to do something about it. A healthy portion of our classmates must approve this concept of a stable fee. Everyone has to know what this idea is all about and why they should care about it. Then we have to support each other by making our voices heard on Election Day.
Joshua Force can be contacted at [email protected]