Group submits student fee plan

The Committee for Fee Review plans to deliver its final recommendations to Dean of Students Dick McKaig today. The committee is working with only a 1.5 percent increase in fees since last year, forcing it to prioritize and possibly give less money than some groups requested.\nStudent organizations like WIUX and IU Student Television, as well as the Student Recreational Sports Center, received top priority from the committee, which has $6.16 per student to delegate among 14 organizations for the 2006-2007 academic year, said Paul Rohwer, moderator of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization. That amounts to about $420,000 to be divided.\nTransportation requested the most money with $4.40 per student, but received only $1.07 in the recommendation. Technology, which requested $2.80 per student, received the biggest recommendation with $1.86. RecSports, meanwhile, received the second-highest recommendation with $1.35.\nAbout 20,000 people, mostly students, use the SRSC, Rohwer said. Because it affects students, the committee decided it was important to provide the SRSC with funds to repair old equipment or replace it with new equipment.\n"We wanted to help students who are helping other students," Rowher said, explaining why student groups were also important to the committee. "That was a big philosophy."\nRohwer said another driving philosophy behind the committee's recommendations was to give money to the organizations that expressed the greatest need. However, the limited amount of money made it impossible to please everyone.\nFor example, the IU Health Center and University Information Technology Services are vital services that have done a great job, but they might not be happy with what the committee gave them, Rohwer said.\nAccording to a spreadsheet prepared by the CFR, the Health Center requested an additional $3.22 per student, but $1.08 was the recommended allotment. However, the Health Center is still one of the few organizations for which the group proposed an increase of more than a dollar. Other organizations include recreational sports, transportation and technology.\nAssistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Associate Dean of Students Damon Sims, who has overseen the fee review process since it was instituted nearly a decade ago, said he thought the committee worked well within the limits they were given.\n"Of course, most of the groups coming before them have greater needs than that, so often the committee is put in a situation where they have to deliver the bad news to the groups that there isn't money," Sims said. "We're sympathetic, but within that constraint, they did a wonderful job to be fair to everyone and do the best job with the limited money they had to give to everyone."\nWhereas the biggest priorities for last year's committee were the universal transportation fee and getting rid of the athletics fee, Rohwer said priority for this year's group had to contend with only $6.16 per person in additional fees, while organizations in total were asking for about $18 more per person.\n"If you asked for very little, we made you very happy," Rohwer said. "If you asked for a lot, you probably won't be too pleased, but you'll be \nsatisfied."\nIUSA President-elect Betsy Henke said no matter what has been recommended by the committee, she and her fellow Hoosier party members will have to work to find the most efficient way of using the resources that are given.\n"Fortunately or unfortunately, this is how it works: The new party doesn't have much say, so they have to make it work," Henke said. "I can only have confidence that the members on CFR made the best decision. I hope and assume that their decision is a more forward looking, visionary approach."\nSims, who has worked with every committee, said he thought this was the most organized team with the most thoughtfully considered \nprocess.\n"They did an exceptional job," Sims said. "They have a lot of information they have to get their minds around in a short amount of time."\n"I simply believe that this is the best example of meaningful student involvement in decision making," he added.\nOnce McKaig receives the committee's fee proposal, he will consult with the organizations for comment about the recommendations. These will move up the chain of command to be eventually approved by the board of trustees at its May meeting.