The student fee package for 2017-2018 and the budget for the student government’s 2017-2018 administration were passed Wednesday night.
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Student Fees move on to be approved by Board of Governors
The Associated Students of Colorado State University senate body approved the 2017-2018 student fees to be proposed to the Board of Governors. The budget was allocated by the Student Fee Review board, and their body passed it last week, but the budget requires the ASCSU senate body to approve the fees before they are presented to the Board of Governors.
Over the past few months, the Student Fee Review Board was presented with several budgets from different departments of campus that are fee funded. According to Mike Lensky, current ASCSU Vice President and chair of SFRB, most of the increases to departments were for mandatory costs and in anticipation for the mandatory Colorado minimum wage increase to take effect in January.
General Fee increases for the 2017-2018 academic year are:
- Full-time, on-campus students: $15.60; total: $1,183.74
- Full-time, off-campus students: $7.25; total: $478.95
- Part-time, on-campus students: $8.20; total: $293.02
- Part-time, off-campus students: $3.62; total: $219.35
For full-time on-campus students, fees will increase by about $15, a 1.34 percent increase from last year. This is a 1.34 percent increase for these students – one of the lowest increases in the last 10 years according to Mike Ellis, the executive director for the Lory Student Center. Last year, the fee increased by 3.49 percent, according to Lensky.
“We’re happy with the fact that we’re only increasing it by 1.34 percent,” Lensky said during Wednesday’s senate meeting. “The main initiatives driving a lot of the fee increases are mandatory costs.”
Lensky said about $7 of the increase was to compensate for these mandatory costs, and $7.84 of the increase was to increase the budget for the Alternative Transportation Fee Advisory Board – a new board created last year tasked with spearheading alternative transportation projects on campus.
ATFAB presented eight budgets to SFRB during the proposal process, ranging from and increase of 9 cents to $22. SFRB decided to allow a moderate increase for what they considered to be a young board, specifically for projects such as expanding the Around the Horn bus service to the south side of campus, helping the City to provide a Sunday bus service and extending transit hours.
The Board of governors will review the proposed fees next week from May 2 – May 3 in the Lory Student Center.
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ASCSU approves Silva/Wells 17-18 budget
ASCSU senate approved President Elect Josh Silva’s 17-18 fiscal year budget for the organization.
In line with his campaign initiatives, Silva did not increase the ASCSU student fee. The budget provides increases to payroll for staff, and allocates $40,000 for a new department, innovation and technology, a major campaign initiative. Silva said the new department will allocate money towards Ram Ride, new technology projects on campus and the CSU app.
Silva said they chose to increase payroll for their staffs this year to ensure senate members and desk staff members had a living wage, and also to adhere to the mandatory Colorado minimum wage increase.
The 2017-2018 budget also allows department directors in ASCSU to have more flexibility in their budgets, rather than specifically earmarking money, as they were this year. Previously, departments were required to spend a certain amount of money on specific events, programs or areas. In the new budget, directors will be allowed to spend money based on the priorities as they see them.
The budget passed the senate without any opposition.
“The vote tonight really showed that everyone is on the same page – in support of the budget, and in support of the initiatives that we ran on,” Silva said.
Collegian news editor Erin Douglas can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @erinmdouglas23.
