Computer fees raised by $3.50 per person
The Student Computer Fee Committee has raised the computer fee by $3.50 per student for the fall.
Matt Ekins, chair of the University Student Fee Board, said, “This body decides what approach should be taken for each fee area. Most voting members of the body are fee administrators over a specific fee.”
Ericka Ensign, Associated Students of Utah State University academic vice president, chairs the Computer Fee Committee.
The $3.50 fee will be allocated to “Computer Services and participating departments as a means of carrying out the functions for which the fee increases have been specifically earmarked by the Student Computer Fee Committee.”
Ekins said the committee “met multiple times, discussing the current use of funds and what is needed to be done to meet what the students wanted.”
The original computer fee addition was around $11, but the committee decided the keep the costs down to benefit students.
Ensign said, “We were not able to fund every request.”
Ekins said, “The committee debated requests that totaled more than $11. Of those requests, the Computer Fee Committee submitted a proposal of only $3.50 to the USFB to vote on.”
Ensign’s committee decided to not fund the following proposals for the upcoming school year:
* making the education computer lab resources open access
* making additional group rooms in the Merrill Library
* making the new computer science computer lab open access
* beginning the funding that will be needed for additional computer stations in the new Merrill Library
* establishing a new open-access computer lab in the basement of The Junction
* putting additional computer stations in the engineering computer lab
“Meticulous calculations were made to determine how much each proposed change would cost before we voted,” Ensign said. “When the voting was over, the items that we chose to fund amounted to the increase that was suggested to the Student Fee Board.”
The $3.50 is dispersed among the following:
* replacing furniture
* using 30-percent post-consumer recycled paper
* paying cleaning costs for printers
* putting 25 additional computers in the Taggart Student Center computer lab
* extending hours in the TSC computer lab, which will be open until 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday
* putting 37 additional computers in the new engineering computer lab
Jeff Smith, sophomore geology major, said, “I’m excited about the additional computers in the TSC computer lab and think that the extended hours are going to make it a lot nicer for students.”
Vanessa Welsh, senior environmental studies major and the proxy president of Environmental Coalition of Students (ECOS), does not approve with how the Computer Fee Committee has chosen to use 30-percent post-consumer recycled paper.
“Obviously some recycled paper content is better than none, but the committee approved 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper based on well-founded information presented to them and with a good understanding of the cost making a move like this would incur,” she said. “Reducing the recycled paper content to 30 percent was an underhanded move to make an ineffective environmental face using a government minimum.”
Welsh said she feels the new resolution uses student money without student support.
“The new resolution stings, because it replaces the original proposal that had enormous student support,” she said. “This new resolution does not have the student support the last one did. The need for funding for maintenance costs is arbitrary and unfounded, and there is a 70 percent decrease in environmental effectiveness.”
–stacipete@cc.usu.edu