16-hour meeting held over $10 student fee hike

The Student Fee Review Board has recommended raising student fees by a little over $10 a year for full-time students.

After more than 16 hours holed up in a basement classroom in George Pearl Hall this weekend, the Board emphasized fiscal responsibility when considering requests totaling more than $11 million in hopes of minimizing, and even eliminating, a student fee increase.

Every program requesting student fees asked for increased funding over last year — a total requested increase of $1.5 million — and four groups asked for almost $200,000 in new money.

When all was said and done, though, at 11:32 p.m. Saturday night, SFRB members were comparing the recommended increase to one or two cups of coffee at Starbuck’s.
“We’ve done all of these awesome things for two Starbuck’s,” said Lissa Knudsen, GPSA president and SFRB chair. “It depends on if you get a caramel macchiato.”

President David Schmidly and the Board of Regents still have to approve and, possibly, change the SFRB’s recommendations, but the proposed changes bring student fees to $457.38 a year per full-time student.

Many of the recurring funding programs with additional funding sources — like Popejoy Hall and University libraries — asked for more student fee revenue because of income losses or increased expenses in other areas.

For example, University libraries are coping with an increase in the cost of E-Journals, so they requested almost $200,000 more from student fees over last year.
“Why are we the orphanage for all the programs that need funding?” Knudsen asked at one point during the deliberations.

Despite the increased need, the SFRB made an informal commitment to holding many of the programs to 2008-09 funding levels, often ignoring requests for increases for 2009-10.
Representatives from New Mexico Public Interest Research Group sat through all of the SFRB’s deliberation to encourage the Board to give them about $85,000 of student fees — roughly 4 dollars a student — to hire full-time lobbyists.

Jake Wellman, ASUNM attorney general and SFRB member, said he hoped funding NMPIRG would open the door for other student groups. However, members on the Board said they were concerned about paying a national organization with student money.

So, the SFRB eventually awarded NMPIRG $49,362 to pay for the lobbyists.

Students supporting a Queer Resource Center also attended the deliberations. Since the QRC would rely on student fees for the entirety of their start-up funding, the SFRB funded them in full — more than $83,000, or $4.01 per full-time student.
The SFRB will meet again on Feb. 19 to discuss SFRB policy amendments and recommendations for each program allocated fees.
Also, the SFRB approved $15,000 from the SFRB reserve fund — which has about $300,000 in it — toward free Albuquerque bus passes for UNM students. However, this funding will only be allocated if the Board can find about $85,000 from other sources, as well.
The Student Fee Review Board is made up of the presidents of the two student governing bodies — ASUNM and GPSA — and two or three of their appointees. Also, the presidents may appoint other members in a non-voting capacity.
Knudsen’s appointees were Japji Hundal and Katie Richardson-McDaniel. ASUNM President Monika Roberts’ appointees were Travis Maestas, Jake Wellman and
Abdullah Feroze.
Also, Cole Vertikoff and B. Lee Drake were non-voting SFRB members. Drake was in Washington D.C. so he attended through webcam and conference call.