Students can expect to see a rise in student fees next year in order to accommodate for a possible increase in salaries of University of Colorado Student Union employees and new construction projects on campus.
Members of UCSU say the pay roll for UCSU has been consistently cut throughout the past few years.
“Two years ago the budget for all the executive staff salaries was roughly $120,000,” said Ryan Biehle, a senior political science major and UCSU Tri-executive. “They get paid based on the university’s pay scale, so the total budget was cut down to $80,000 and then to $50,000. We’d only be able to pay a maximum of five students the entire year.”
UCSU has four funding sources on campus: student fees, tuition, state money and revenue generated from auxiliary services such as the Alferd Packard Grill. Student fees are the only source of funding the salary increase is eligible for, according to Biehle.
“We have a number of staff positions; we have a lot of critical jobs on the staff we couldn’t maintain if we didn’t have the funding allocation,” Biehle said. “You have to keep in mind, too, that our increase is relatively small compared to the budget for UCSU, which is $34 million so we’re just asking for a small increase to get our budget up to what it was in 2006.”
The budget won’t be finalized for a month and a half and could change dramatically, but the increase is expected to be around 75 cents a semester per student, according to Biehle.
“We’re keeping very much in mind the economic problem, and we’re trying to accommodate for students,” Biehle said. “If we weren’t to fund this I believe services to students will be dramatically reduced.”
UCSU budgets for the next school year, so the Tri-executives came into the position with a budget that was already finalized for the current year.
“We don’t want to raise student fees too much, we realize that CU students pay a lot for tuition and a lot for student fees, but there is a growing demand for new programs,” said Victoria Garcia, senior communications major and UCSU Tri-executive. “We’re going to try to keep the student fee increase down to a minimum and at what we think is appropriate for our priorities.”
Students said they feel that creating more awareness about UCSU should be among the councils’ priorities.
“I think they need to do a better job of promoting themselves before they ask us to raise their salaries through our student fees,” said John Regaldo, a freshman film major. “Nobody knows what they do.”
In an effort to reach out to the student body, UCSU is improving their Web site, sending out a monthly newsletter, starting a Facebook group and hosted an open house last week.
One of the issues at hand for UCSU is whether or not students should vote on whether they want their student fees raised for capital construction costs.
Initially suggested by the regents, the idea of having students vote on how they want their money spent was shut down, according to Garcia. This proposal was supported by the regents but was voted down as a regent proposal. However, it was supported by UCSU at the student level. The apathy toward UCSU on campus was the prime motivation for keeping the power to regulate student fees in the hands of the tri-executives, according to Garcia.
“Historically, we haven’t had more than 25 percent of the student body vote on anything,” Garcia said.
UCSU determines what student fees should be funding.
Last week, Carlos Garcia, director of the UMC, appealed to UCSU for funding to make necessary renovations to the Grill. The Grill is funded entirely by student fees, and hasn’t been making as much money as it is costing UCSU.
“Is it worth it year after year to invest in the Grill, or should we invest more money in (the Grill) to keep it going?” Victoria Garcia said. “We have to look at our student services, like Wardenburg and the Recreational Center, figure out what their needs are: we just take a holistic approach on it.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sara Kassabian at Sara.kassabian@colorado.edu.
