TO THE EDITOR:
Students should vote “No” on the Student Organization Fee Referendum on Tuesday, Dec. 6th. Undergraduate students already pay nearly $1,000 a semester — $976.57 —in fees. (Graduate students pay even more, at $981.58 per semester).
Supporters claim that Student Congress needs the additional $10 a student to adequately fund student organizations. I have sat through numerous Student Congress funding hearings, and being asked to pay more toward this broken process is ridiculous. Funding allocations are completely inefficient. It’s well known that only those organizations who submit their funding requests in the first few seconds of the funding period will be funded at all. There are few standard amounts for what organizations will get, or on what merit it will be awarded and the process as a whole is messy and difficult to navigate.
Student Congress’s funding system needs reform, but asking students to pay more is not how it should be achieved. Students already pay almost $2,000 a year towards fees, on top of tuition, books, housing and other costs. Asking for even $10 more without reforming the absurd student organization funding system is asking too much.
Emma Holcomb
Junior
Health Policy and Management
