The ASUW Tuition, Allocations, and Student Fee Review Committee recently met to make their mandated recommendations on a variety of student fees. Among those with recommendations for significant cuts were Student Media, The Honors College, and every College of Arts and Sciences fee.
The ASUW committee TASCFRC has been meeting annually for years to discuss recommendations to the University’s Central Fee Committee on different student fees. These can range from fee increases to decreases, to simply remaining as is. Most of these fees receive recommendations to remain as they are, as the Central Fee Committee often utilizes standard increases and rarely decreases fees outside of extenuating circumstances.
This year, for recommendations for Fiscal Year 2025 to 2026, the committee recommended three increases: a 2.5% increase to transportation services for the reason of inflation and high prices for parts, an 8% increase to consolidated student services for the reason of maintaining and repairing various parts of the Student union, and a 4% increase for intercollegiate athletics, for the reasoning of athletics having significant importance to the campus culture and community.
The committee recommended cuts to six total fees, with three of these fees falling within the College of Arts and Sciences. The first cut recommendation is to decrease the advising fee by 10%. The justification for this cut is the frequency of students emailing their advisors rather than having live meetings with them. In addition, the committee has seen no improvement in the quality or quantity of advisors from the previous fiscal year which is used as additional reasoning.
The second cut recommendation is for the Student Media fee. This cut sits at a recommended 75%. The justifications are as follows: a small cut recommendation was made last year with the Central Fee Committee determining it unnecessary as Student Media has not requested a fee increase in many years. This cut recommendation was made in hopes that Student Media would improve concerns in operations. The committee claims that no significant improvements have been made to student media. The reasonings for this fee decrease also include understaffing in Student Media, too significant of a carryover budget, non-students reading the paper free of charge, and poor readership estimations. The committee admits that there are no reliable ways to measure student readership at this time.
The third cut recommendation, comprising all three fees in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a 10% decrease to all student fees in this college due to a high carryover account. A plan was made by the College of Arts and Sciences but was not able to be entirely carried out due to not all aspects being controllable by the college. The committee recommended a fee decrease despite these challenges with the understanding that a fee increase can be requested during the next recommendation period for fiscal year 2026-2027.
The final suggested decrease is a 25% decrease to the Honors College Program Fee. This is due to a high carryover account despite low enrollment. Justifications included concerns about the quality of internship and career services. The committee states that they will consider accepting an increase should the Honors College fix these problems by the next evaluation period for fiscal year 2026-2027.
The Tuitions Allocations and Student Fee Review Committee released this legislation for first reading on Tuesday, November 5th. The ASUW Senate will vote on whether or not to approve the increases, decreases, and net recommendations on Tuesday, November 12th, during the 7 p.m. full Senate meeting. Members of the student body as well as faculty and staff are able to attend and speak from the Gallery should they have concerns or comments.
