Partway through the fall semester, the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming is hard at work representing students’ interests.
Student senators advanced in-house business and heard a presentation regarding this semester’s new advising fees at the Tuesday meeting of ASUW.
The recently implemented fees amount to $6 per credit hour, per student, per semester—amounting to an additional $90 for a student taking 15 credit hours. The fees include additional salary and training funds are intended to create a more professional and higher-quality advising experience for students, said Advising, Career and Exploratory Studies Assistant Director, Richard Miller, in his presentation.
“Lot of complaints from students—depending on what college or what major you were in, you might gotten a great advising experience or a not-so-great advising experience,” Miller said. “Some things we talked about were we really wanted to make advising not just ‘you walk in, we tell you which classes to take, okay see you later, best of luck to you.’ We wanted to make more of a relationship, not so transactional—we started some things, hope you guys have seen some improvement already.”
Fees were projected to generate about $1.5 million annually in new revenue, which varies according to how many total credits students pay for. Ninety percent of that money is being spent on new positions for student advising and 10 percent on other support and supplies, according to Miller. Surplus revenue will be reallocated as seen fit by the Advising Council once it has a handle on final figures further into the year.
The School of Energy Resources is still seeking a new professional advisor, and the “self-funded” Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources received no new funds from the fees, said Miller.
The $6 hike is part of a larger fee program restructuring for the 2018-2019 academic year approved by the Board of Trustees in November of 2017. Based on the recommendations of a task force appointed by President Laurie Nichols, more than 140 fees for specific degree programs were revamped to more closely reflect the cost of each program and ensure the revenue will benefit students who need it the most.
As ASUW moved on to legislation, Senate Bill 2632: ASUW Bylaws Reformatting and & Revision XV was introduced with its first reading. SB-2632 aims to restructure ASUW governing documents to improve their transparency and clarity.
For those interested, ASUW is seeking to fill positions for marketing and RSO relations internships. Applications will be kept open on the ASUW website through the end of the week.
