Reaction Story

The Associated Student Government Senate continues to debate raising the student activities fee from $99 to $120 after two votes failed to pass the measure.

The proposal, made by ASG Executive Vice President Srikanth Reddy, a McCormick junior, was based on an April 1999 poll of the student body. Referenda are binding for four years. This referendum's results showed 63.5 percent of students who voted approved of increasing the fee to from $66 to $120.

The potential fee increase, which would need to be approved by the Board of Trustees to go into effect, had produced mixed opinions in the current student body.

Dave Ander, an Education graduate student, said he thought the increase would benefit students by allowing student groups to put on more events and bring more speakers to campus.

"It makes sense to bring in anyone who would speak on behalf of a student group," Ander, 26, said.

But Jennifer Tabach, a Speech sophomore, said although the money might be helpful, she was unsure of how it would be used by ASG.
"I would like it a lot more if they laid out clearly what it was going to do," Tabach, 19, said.

Sonya Koo, 20, president of Greek InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said she believed the money ASG already has is not being distributed well. Some student groups, she said, seem to get less than others.

"We get almost no money at all from ASG," Koo, a Weinberg senior, said. "Fellowships like Muslim-cultural Students Association and Hillel get money, but we don't get any."

Scott Brown, a Medill junior, said he found the distribution of funds unfair. He said he does not like seeing a large portion of the student activities money go to A&O Productions in spite of its recent problems with concert acts.

"ASG shouldn't get any more money because any extra they get will just go to A&O, and they don't deserve it," Brown, 20, said.

A&O Productions received ASG approval Tuesday for its winter quarter concert funds to be used to put on a spring quarter concert. The group had been unable to find a major act to bring to campus in the winter.

But unequal distribution of funds was not only problem students had with the proposed increase. Yemiymah Yisra'el, a McCormick freshman, said ASG needed to consider the impact raising the fee could have on students with tight budgets.

"I think it would be OK for people who actually go to these things, but for the students who don't have a lot of money to pay and don't go to the events, it could be a problem," Yisra'el, 19, said.

Matt Petty, 19, a Weinberg freshman, said he didn't think ASG needed to raise the student activities fee. Student groups, he said, just need to use the money they have more effectively.

"We need bigger speakers that will draw bigger crowds rather than smaller speakers who are poorly attended," Petty said.

Copyright © 2002 Colleen Fischer | Last updated October 7, 2002