As the semester comes to a close, the Student Activity Fee Adhoc Committe (SAFAC) is still considering changes to the student activity fee, including a proposal to continually raise the fee from now on to match national inflation. The committee continues to raise awareness of the services the fee is prviding on campus. The Student Activity Fee logo has been placed on flyers advertizing campus events and other activities and services provided by the current $39 per semester fee.
The SAFAC has continued to meet throughout the semester and is still in favor of raising the fee next semester during the campus-wide Student Senate elections. They are, however, still considering different options like how much of the fee should be paid by part-time and full-time students. Another possibility would be asking the student body in a separate referendum question if they would support indexing the fee to government measured inflation.
According to Sarah Hines, secretary of the Student Senate and a member of the SAFAC, indexing the fee would increase the fee gradually each year at the same rate as that of the U.S. dollar’s inflation. The ultimate reason that the SAFC is attempting to raise the fee this year is to catch up to the rising costs caused by inflation. Over the last seven years, the entities that receive funds from the Activity Fee continue to pay more each year to offer the same services while the fee has been the same.
Hines said if the fee was indexed there would probably never be a need to raise the fee ever again; the amount would always be sufficient because it would keep up with inflation. Hines has contacted the Administration at USM and found they would support indexing the fee as well.
“Seven years ago, they wouldn’t support it, but now they will,” she said.
The SAFAC has also been in contact with other schools in the UMaine system and found that many other students involved in student governments across the state would also support the idea of indexing their student activity fee. Support from other schools would help convince the Board of Trustees, the body that has the final say in any fee change, to index the student activity fee.
“If we have four out of seven schools going to the Board of Trustees and saying we want this to happen, then it probably will,” said Hines. More discussions will take place about indexing the fee throughout the state at the next Maine State Student Government Association meeting in the Spring.
The SAFAC does not know if they will ask students to index the fee this year.
“In the end it’s going to come down to what the student body wants,” said Hines.
The next SAFAC meeting will be held at 11 Baxter Blvd. on Thursday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. Students can contact student senators and members of the SAFAC at 228-8501.