How would you feel if, after stepping into the Student Recreation Center and preparing to swipe your student ID card, you were
instead told to shell out $5? What if you
got onto the city bus, just as you do every morning, and had to pay full fare? You would be rightfully mad, because the truth is that you have already paid for these services with your incidental fees. To pay more money
for the use of buses or student facilities is double taxation. And yet, this is exactly what a group of University students is forced to deal with.
Last week, the Emerald reported that students at the University’s Portland Center had filed grievances with the ASUO (“Students at Portland satellite file grievances,” ODE, May 10). Angry about paying incidental fees without receiving the same benefits as students on the Eugene campus, these students want their money back.
Although concerns among Portland campus students were brought up earlier this year (“Committee formed to advocate for equal perks,” ODE, Jan. 5; “Students doubt justice of fees,” ODE, Feb. 23), neither the administration nor the ASUO took steps to address
the problem.
The Portland Student Action Council, created in early 2005, rightly strives to give
Portland students the perks they deserve. Here in Eugene, our incidental fees allow us to ride the local bus system, use the rec center, ride with Assault Prevention Shuttle or Designated Driver Shuttle and access sporting events, all for free.
Students at the Portland satellite campus
receive none of these benefits. Each time their incidental fee money goes toward one of these Eugene services, Portland students are paying for someone else’s free ride.
Interestingly, students at the University’s other satellite campus in Bend are not required to pay incidental fees. It therefore seems that the Portland campus fiasco is based on some strange University oversight. Administrators obviously realize that satellite campuses should not be forced to fund perks for Eugene students, and yet nothing has been done to remedy the situation.
Likewise, the ASUO has been unwilling to seriously evaluate or solve PSAC concerns. In January, ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour said that student government was simply unaware of the incidental fee situation and promised that students’ concerns would be addressed.
As of yet, the ASUO has done no tangible work to correct the problem. Although student government may not have the power to decide how much students pay in incidental fees, the ASUO should at least use its power as a major figurehead to advocate for the
Portland campus students. PSAC’s wise
decision to file grievances shows that the
issue of equality in benefits will not go away on its own. We hope that this time the University will not try to use time as a device to shove the concerns of PSAC underneath the administrative rug.
It is costly enough to put oneself through an education. The University is making these Portland students throw away money on unusable services, and that is just plain wrong. Until comparable perks can be offered at the University’s Portland Center, those students should not be required to pay money toward benefits that benefit someone else.

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]