Fee Board recommends $7.49 increase

After almost a month of weekly meetings, the Utah State Student Fee Board is recommending a student fee increase of $7.49 to the Board of Trustees.

The recommendation is comprised of two fees — $6.44 for the Campus Recreation Center and $1.05 for the Music and Theater Department.’

Campus Recreation Center fee

Campus Recreation representatives originally requested a $9.80 increase, which would pay for new professional staff, including the following:

• Lead custodian ($1.44/semester/student)
• IT coordinator, whose responsibilities would include managing the center’s high-tech equipment, including hand scanners to replace student IDs. Officials referred to the fitness equipment as having “enterprise-level software.” ($1.62/semester/student)
• Fitness program coordinator, who would “provide vision” to the programs ($1.69/semester/student)
• Certified athletic trainer ($1.69/semester/student)
• Intramural program coordinator ($1.69/semester/student)
• PR/Marketing coordinator ($1.69/semester/student)

Most of the salaries for the staff come to about $30,000 per year. There was some concern that these new professional positions would take away jobs from students. Some also felt the IT coordinator and PR/marketing positions seemed unnecessary. Consequently, the USFB decided to give campus recreation a partial increase, without the addition of funding for those two positions — in total, a $6.44 increase per student.

This increase would be in addition to the current campus recreation fee of $28.33. A $50 fee has also already been approved for 2015-16. If this fee is approved by the Utah State Board of Trustees, students will be paying $84.77 per semester to fund recreation center. However, the additional $50 will only be required during construction.

Final Vote: 16 in favor, 3 opposed

Music and Theater fee

The Music and Theater fee was approved without much discussion. There has not been an increase in the fee since 2011, when it jumped from $6.48 to $8.59 — a 32.56 percent increase.

When the Aggie athletics teams moved from the Western Athletic Conference to the more-competitive Mountain Western Conference, the athletics department saw an increase, but the music and theater department was not given additional funding to compensate for the change.

This fee will help maintain new instruments, as the band is currently playing instruments from the 1950s.

Final Vote: 16 in favor, 1 opposed, 2 abstained from voting

Other proposed fees rejected

A new fee for the Access and Diversity Center was proposed, as well as an increase for the Aggie Shuttle. There was also a proposal for an increase for Aggie Blue Bikes fees, but Vice President of Student Services James Morales offered to fulfill Aggie Blue Bikes’ needs with his “division monies” for two to three years while they look for ways to innovate.

All three of these proposals failed to pass.

Final Vote for Aggie Blue Bikes: 0 in favor, 19 opposed

Final Vote for Access and Diversity Center: 1 in favor, 16 opposed, 3 abstained

Final Vote for Aggie Shuttle: 6 in favor, 14 opposed