The fee students pay to fund the ASUO will decrease by $3 next year, though that doesn’t mean the ASUO will have less money to spend.
The main reason for the reduction in the incidental fee is an increase in enrollment: The cost of having an ASUO will now be spread out among more students, meaning each will have to pay less.
The incidental fee is now $195 per term for students taking 12 or more credits, but will be reduced to $192 for 2010–11.
The money set aside for the ASUO to spend, which pays for services and programs for students as well as the EMU, will still increase by about $400,000. The fee will also pay for assessments, a percentage of the ASUO’s budget the University charges for on-campus utilities and other services it provides to the ASUO and the buildings its programs use. All of this will amount to an increase in the ASUO’s existing $12 million budget.
The fee reduction will not decrease the cost of enrollment for students next year, however. Undergraduate tuition and fees will increase by $897 for Oregon residents and $2,157 for out-of-state and international students, on average.
Nevertheless, ASUO Sen. Demic Tipitino, the student government’s most vocal fiscal conservative, hailed the incidental fee decrease as a “small victory” of principle.
“I don’t think the monetary difference is going to make that much of a difference to students,” he said. “It’s that the government is using their fees as responsibly as possible.”
The ASUO decreased its two smallest budgets for the coming year: Its funding for student programs and its allocations to University departments will both fall by less than a percent in the coming year.
However, the two larger budgets, the one the ASUO spends on contracts with outside services and the one it uses to fund the EMU, will each increase by more than $200,000.
“Would I have liked it to be a bigger cut? Of course,” said Tipitino, who chairs the committee that funds University departments. “If I had been in charge of every committee, would it have been? Of course.”
The response to the incidental fee decrease has been positive even among those who usually fight for more funding for the ASUO. ASUO President-elect Amelie Rousseau said during the ASUO’s presidential debate two weeks ago she would seek to continue spending in the same way during her administration.
ASUO Sen. Sandy Weintraub, who is known for calling for more funding for student groups, said the fee reduction is acceptable.
“If it helps students, that’s fine,” he said. “As long as we’re serving students’ needs.”
Weintraub said the ASUO has allocated adequate funding to student programs this year. There has been some dissent on that subject this year — in February, former ASUO Sen. Diego Hernandez said the ASUO should allocate as much money to the Multicultural and Women’s Centers as it does to the Craft Center and Club Sports.
However, most holding ASUO office have endorsed the reduction.
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