Rise in student fees discussed
Students’ needs and how to pay for them were discussed Tuesday by the Associated Students of Utah State University Executive Council.
The need for higher stipends for ASUSU Executive Council officers, full-time lawyers on campus, and the ability to use VISA cards to pay for tuition and fees were discussed.
The stipend given to ASUSU officers hasn’t changed in 18 years, said A.J. Rounds, graduate studies vice president. Along with tuition, officers currently receive $150 per month during the nine-month school year adding up to $1,350 yearly. If the stipends had been raised along with inflation, the student body officers should receive $2,179, Rounds said. If the officers were being paid minimum wage they would receive more than $400 a month.
A survey conducted by an Ad Hoc committee showed that many ASUSU officers work more than 40 hours a week on ASUSU related tasks.
Rounds and the Ad Hoc committee suggested stipends be increased to at least $225 each month. The money to fund the raise would come from paying the officers in eight months instead of nine, cutting the summer stipend fund in half, and from other budgets. The proposal will go before ASUSU again next week. The stipend increase would not go into effect until next year.
ASUSU President Les Essig also presented a recommendation that would increase stipends, as well as fund full-time, on-campus lawyers, and give money to the Utah Student Association for lobbying efforts. Essig said he suggests a total increase in student fees of $2.50 per student, with $1.75 going toward on-campus lawyers, 50 cents to increase ASUSU officer stipends and 25 cents for lobbying.
Essig said many of USU’s peer institutions have two or three full-time lawyers and report far more students using legal services than does USU, which relies heavily on volunteers.
“Our program is far below par,” Essig said. “It’s like the football program – if you continue to neglect it, it will just get worst.
If the recommendation is passed next week by the Executive Council, Essig will then take it to the Student Fee Board.
USU Vice President for Business and Finance Ron Godfrey also announced the possibility that next fall students may be able to pay for tuition and student fees using a VISA credit card. When USU decided to no longer accept VISA, due to the flat rate charged by the company, the university saved $380,000, Godfrey said.
However, by using a third party to run all credit cards and e-checks, USU would be able to accept all credit cards, a change Godfrey feels would benefit many students and their parents who want to use VISA.
Currently, USU does not accept VISA and has a 2 percent charge on all other credit cards and no charge on e-checks. The change would raise the credit card charge to 2.5 percent and add a $3 charge on all e-checks.
“Remember, it’s all about the students,” Godfrey said.
-hilaryi@cc.usu.edu