Congress to Vote on Student Fee Referendum

If the legislation passes in Congress' full meeting, the referendum will propose an increase in student activity fees from $11.50 to $19.50 per semester for undergraduates and from $9.50 to $16.50 per semester for graduate students.

Speaker of Congress Tony Larson said Monday that he estimates $200,000 could be generated from such an increase. Student activity fees are split between Congress, the Carolina Union Activities Board, the Graduate and Professional Student Federation, WXYC and Student Television.

"Right now we don't have the money -- we've had to cut (student groups' budgets) dramatically," said Carey Richter, chairwoman of Congress' Student Affairs Committee.

"I'm hoping it will improve the quality of the student activities on campus. ... I can't remember the last time we funded someone at the amount they requested."

The fee increase proposals are based on the amount students have been paying for the past two decades with corrections for inflation.

"For about 20 years or so, the student organizations have been forced to work on the same budget," said Blair Sweeney, chairman of the Rules and Judiciary Committee. "Funds are getting really tight ... and our peer institutions like Duke (University) and N.C. State (University) have much higher fees than we do."

Congress attempted to increase student fees during special elections last April with a proposal to change both undergraduate and graduate student activity fees to $16.50.

Despite receiving a majority vote in favor of the increase, only 417 students -- 1.7 percent of the student body -- filled out a ballot. The Student Code requires that at least 10 percent of the student body vote before student fees can be amended.

If Congress decides today to place the new referendum on the February ballot, the vote will take place during general elections instead of special elections, which should greatly increase the number of voters, Congress members said.

More than 7,000 students voted for student body president during last year's general elections -- more than 28 percent of the student body.

Further publicizing of the vote will have to be up to student groups, Sweeney said. "I think the student organizations themselves are the ones that are going to have to promote it just because they are the ones that are going to reap the benefits."

But increasing the fee will not supply immediate funding for student activities, officials said. Because fee increases can't occur past a certain date, revenue from the increased fee will not start coming in until 2004, said Dan Herman, chairman of Congress' Ethics Committee.

If attempts to raise the fee fail again, Congress will have to keep considering the issue of more funding, Larson said.

"The duty of the Congress, with the support of the student body, is to set the level of student activity fees, and we constantly need to be reviewing that," Larson said. "They have to stay on top of student fees."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.