$1 sustainability fee to be put to student vote
The MSA president-elect and vice president-elect support the fee.
Published Dec. 11, 2008
Missouri Students Association Senate voted to put a new student fee, which would help pay for sustainability programming and initiatives, to a student vote.
The Senate voted Wednesday night to hold a referendum sometime next semester. The fee would be $1 per semester in order to pay student employees of the sustainability office. Sustain Mizzou President Pat Margherio said the proposed fee is to help support the sustainability coordinator, if the administration agrees to create the position.
"It is a more effective use of money if a coordinator is hired," Margherio said. "The student employees can still do work without a coordinator, but they won't be as effective."
MSA Vice President-elect Colleen Hoffman said that though money will be spent initially, in the long run, fees would be reduced based on the effects of having a more sustainable campus.
Student employees being paid by the additional student fee would include two graduate assistants and six sustainability representatives, outgoing MSA Vice President Chelsea Johnson said. The graduate assistants would work with the coordinator, help write grants and conduct research. The representatives would work on smaller projects and work with the multitude of student groups already on campus. She said the rest of the money would go toward projects to help MU be more sustainable.
The bill states after the graduate assistants and representatives are paid "the remainder of the fee would act as an operating budget, overseen by the sustainability coordinator and graduate assistants in conjunction with the MSA sustainability committee and Environmental Affairs Committee, to fund projects that will maximize the quantifiable impact of each student dollar."
Margherio said the representatives and graduate assistants would focus on advocacy work and education.
The main purpose of the bill, Johnson said, was to give the administration an extra push to hire a sustainability coordinator.
"There has been a lot of interest in MSA as well as higher up to hire a sustainability coordinator," Hoffman said.
MSA Senator Phyllis Williams spoke in favor of the bill Wednesday and said students should have the chance to make their thoughts known about the additional fee.
Based on her campaign, Hoffman said she thinks the students would agree to the extra fee.
"A lot of students are bending toward going green but we think they should vote on it themselves," Hoffman said.
The administration will be providing funds for the sustainability coordinator while the student fee helps with the office staff, MSA President-elect Jordan Paul said.
"Look at any office on campus," Paul said. "They all have a few students working there."
The bill states that other universities have already implemented student fees such as the one proposed, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Colorado.