A student fee increase of $16 per student, per semester, starting this fall is being recommended by ASUW and will next be considered by the UW Board of Trustees.
While ASUW handles upwards of one million in some student fees, this is only a fraction of the total student fee budget. UW’s estimated costs for both Wyoming resident students and non-residents currently includes $674 in mandatory fees—only $43 per student goes to ASUW for re-allotment within the student government and to Recognized Student Organizations. The rest go to a variety of campus programs, services and payrolls—which would include the new increases.
“We aren’t requesting a fee increase at all,” ASUW President Ben Wetzel said. “The two units that requested increases—one of them is referred to as the Consolidated Students Services Fee and that is Student Health, Campus Recreation, Counseling Center, it’s basically our wellness network. What that increase was for was only to cover the change in benefits that full-time employees receive.”
The second recipient of the recommended student fees increase would be the athletics division—which, as per the new resolution, would receive an additional 8.7 percent of student fees.
“It was the first time Athletics requested an increase in four years,” Wetzel said. “Part of the money is going to go towards maintenance and installation of WI-FI systems and cellular systems in the War Memorial Stadium and Arena Auditorium. The other portions of the fee are being used towards what’s referred to in Athletics, and across the board in the NCAA, as the ‘fan experience,’ and that’s all of the promotional things we do at games to try to increase student attendance. The fee revenue that’s coming in from that is all going to turn around and come back to students.”
Some students have responded with similar views for the value of student fees and their overall effects for the campus and student life, especially considering athletics.
“Ideally, education looks like ancient Greek philosophers who just sat around, drank wine, ate cheese and thought about things, but we don’t live in an ideal world,” sophomore political science major Phoenix LaVigne said. “If I have to pay for the athletic department and club sports or whatever so that more people come to the university and my campus is better, then it comes around.”
In the grander scheme of student fees, some allotments have been the cause for contention on campus—particularly an event last semester featuring talk radio host and writer Dennis Prager, which was made possible by student fees granted to Turning Point USA of Wyoming. Even in situations with such controversial subjects and uses of general student funds, some students held that those contrasts are an important use of such funds.
“I went to it, I listened to what he had to say, thought he said some unbelievably stupid s—, but you know what I did? I showed up and listened instead of ignoring outright and refusing to acknowledge that the other side exists, that’s what’s so frustrating,” senior philosophy major Sid Douglas said.
For students who would still rather have more control over the money they pay in student fees and how it’s used (or isn’t), Wetzel advised that mandatory student fees are not set in stone.
“If a student has concerns with the cost of one unit’s fees or another, or why we’re paying them, they can email me and I can consider and take those concerns to the board of trustees when they make their decision—or they can run for election,” Wetzel said. “If they really are passionate and that’s something they want to see changed, get on the senate and be part of that, be part of the mandatory student fees process and represent your own voice.”
Currently, ASUW election applications for 2018-2019 are open and will close Thursday, March 8 at 4:30 p.m., with general elections taking place in mid-April.
