MSA discusses tweaks to student fee process
If students approve a new construction fee, it would take effect the next fiscal year.
Published Sept. 30, 2008
MSA officials met Monday to discuss making it more difficult to pass new student fees and requiring students to pay those fees immediately after they're passed.
Last week, the Missouri Students Association Budget Committee voted to require that no less than 25 percent of a new construction- or renovation-related fee would be assessed each year following passage of the referendum.
Previously, fees could be assessed at the time when construction begins or when a facility is open for use.
This change is something MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays feels passionately about.
"We need to hold students accountable for the fees they approve," Mays said. Mays said that now, students have zero accountability for new fees because they can approve student fees that might not go into effect until they have already graduated.
In April 2005, 6,036 students voted 64.33 percent to 35.67 percent to approve a $35 per semester student fee to pay for a new student center. Under the language of the referendum, the fee did not go into effect until the first phase of construction is completed.
Gwen Daniels, chairwoman of the Student Fee Review Committee, shares Mays' value of accountability.
"If we vote to undertake a new project, like build a new building, we can't just pass it so we'll never have to see it," she said. "We have to be accountable for what we voted for, and I like that."
Daniels is also a columnist for The Maneater.
She explained that even if a group of students might never get to use a new building, they are using their student fees to invest in MU, and helping "attract future students so our school can continue to be a flagship."
The proposed change in wording will require students pay the fees each year after approving a fee increase.
MSA, the Residence Halls Association and the Legion of Black Collegians will vote on this wording in their yearly joint meeting Wednesday. Although the Graduate Professional Council will also be present at Wednesday's meeting, it will not vote on the legislation until Oct. 7.
The second part of the legislation would increase the required majority of a vote to approve a new student fee. A simple majority of voting students is required to pass a new student fee, but under the amendment, a three-fifths vote is required.
"I'm suggesting that we agree with MSA that three-fifths is a good idea," GPC Treasurer Leslie Rill said.
If this amendment is passed by MSA Wednesday, it will go to a full student body vote during the MSA presidential elections, held Nov. 10-12.
