Power in the hands of students: Fee board handles nearly $8 million

The 27 members of the 2015-16 student fee board met for the first time Thursday for a welcome breakfast in the Taggart Student Center. The goal of the meeting was to get members acquainted with the administrators whose fees they chair.

The fee board is comprised of the seven USUSA executive board members, the nine USUSA college senators, the vice president of student services, three ex-officio administrators and seven students-at-large, or unaffiliated students.

Together, these members are responsible for nearly $8 million in student fees and are in charge of finding any misuse or misappropriation of these fees, said James Morales, the vice president of student services.

“Utah State University’s process is the gold standard,” Morales said. “We do it right.”

Utah State University “does it right” because the board is mostly students, with only one administrator having voting rights. These voting rights become powerful during decision-making.

Members are assigned to one fee for the school year. They — along with other members — are grouped with an ex-officio, or non-voting, administrator from the board to chair that fee. Over the span of the school year, they decide whether to increase, decrease or maintain the fee.

During the process, they hear petitions at the meetings from administration and faculty as to what they believe would be the best appropriation of the money. At the end, the members vote on the fee and pass the decision along to the President’s Executive Council. The executive council discusses it and sends its recommendation back to the board, which the board accesses and uses to come to a final decision. The decision is then sent to President Stan Albrecht, who has ultimate veto power over the fee.

In order to have the student fees accurately reflect what the students want, USUSA Executive Vice President Thomas Buttars said they changed the process for selecting the students-at-large to an application.

“This is student fee money,” Buttars said. “It’s important to have as many students as possible.”

After receiving applications, Buttars said the selection committee wanted to have disparity among the individuals, but they mainly looked for three things: desire, passion and teamwork.

“We didn’t want people coming in with their own agenda,” Buttars said. “We wanted people with an open mind.”

Kade Beck was selected as a student-at-large for this year, but he was on the board last year as the engineering senator.

“I worked with the computer fee, and I was really interested in continuing that experience,” Beck said. “I felt that I was effective last year, but I feel like I could spread the word better and find ways for better feedback.”

One of the ways Beck said he would get better feedback was through more one-on-one conversations with friends earlier.

“A lot of students aren’t really sure what fees we have and what they are used for,” he said.

Students that aren’t part of the fee board still have many avenues they can use to make sure their voice is heard, said Madison Maners, the USUSA public relations and marketing director.

“All of the hard work is completed in the committees, so it’s most effective for concerned students to contact the student leader who oversees the individual fee,” Maners said. “From that point they are also welcome to attend the Fee Board meetings, as they are open to the public, and make appointments with officers as needed to discuss their views.”

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