Members of a committee tasked with raising the Student Activity Fee (SAF) have expressed optimism with their plan after speaking with President Pattenaude last week. They have decided to index the fee to the inflation of the U.S. dollar. If all goes according to plan, the committee will bring the proposal to the senate for approval, and students will vote on the issue in March. Any changes in the fee would then take effect in the fall 2004 semester.
Unlike other fees, which the University can adjust without consulting students, the SAF can only be increased after students consent to the increase by voting on it in referenda questions during Student Senate elections. Since it is difficult to get students to agree to a raise every year, the Senate instead asks for a large increase every six to eight years to compensate for the inflation of the U.S. dollar and the growth of programs supported by the fee.
As a result, student groups that depend on the SAF go through a lopsided cycle punctuated by a brief glut of extra money followed by a steep decline, until the fee is raised again and the cycle repeats. Right now, the fee is at the low point of that cycle, according to Jeremy Colette, a SAF Ad-hoc Committee (SAFAHC) member and the Student Senate Chair. Student groups rely on fundraisers like bake sales and raffles to stay in business.
Instead of raising the fee as usual, the SAFAC has decided to use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a benchmark for annual fee increases. The CPI is widely used to calculate the relative purchasing power of money over time as it becomes less valuable or inflates. The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics calculates the CPI monthly, based on the amount of money it takes to buy certain products.
Sarah Hines, secretary of the Student Senate and a member of the SAFAHC, says she is confident that students will approve the plan in March. “It’s just sound economic policy,” she said.
The current plan is to calculate the inflation from 1999 and raise the fee accordingly, said Collette. “The idea is to bring us back to the middle of that cycle where everybody has the right amount of money.” As a result, the initial fee raise would be relatively large compared to those that will come later.
For full-time students, the initial raise will be just under $5. For reference, students taking 12 credits or more currently pay $39. Those with 6 to 11.5 credits pay $27 and those with 1-5 pay $13.
President Pattenaude suggested that the fee be applied over two years, so full-time students would see only $2.50 in increases for the next two years.
Many students, already weary with mounting fees are not enthusiastic about another tuition raise.
“I feel like I’ve gotten nickeled and dimed,” said Benantonio Forgione, a freshman communications major who lives in Gorham. He said that a multitude of small charges and numerous parking tickets have resulted in a feeling of resentment towards the University’s perceived greed.
The SAFAHC has tried to raise awareness of the programs that the SAF makes possible. When asked, most students could not say what the SAF is used for. Hines says she realizes that the committee has not succeeded on this front.
“People don’t read posters,” she said. The committee plans to distribute a petition to students summarizing the indexed fee plan and affirming signers’ support. This will serve the dual purpose of generating more publicity and getting a feel for how much support there is. “I think it will help to have students seeing us eye-to-eye, and for us to be answering their questions.”