New student fee sought at YSU

Any new fee would have to win approval of the university’s board of trustees.

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s Student Government Association says a $1 per credit-hour fee assessed on students would enable it to expand financial support of individual student academic pursuits and student organizations.

As operations now stand, SGA says it is insufficiently funded to meet the needs of students, according to a final draft version of its Appropriations Budget Restructuralization Project it approved last week.

That document contains a request that the university’s Board of Trustees assess a Student Organizational and Academics Fee on all students.

The proposal calls for a fee of $1 per credit hour, up to a maximum of $12 for undergraduates and $9 for graduate students, each fall and spring semester.

That could generate about $306,000 a year (based on current enrollment levels of about 14,000 students) that SGA could use to fund student organizations and more, according to the proposal.

Zach Brown, SGA president, said the $1 number is just a starting point and that the trustees could set the fee at any amount. Realistically, SGA doesn’t expect to get all of the money it is seeking, he said.

SGA now gets $31,000 from the university to fund student organization requests for the school year.

That’s far below the amount of requests it receives, Brown said.

Scott Schulick, president of the Board of Trustees, said he’s seen an advance copy of the proposal but that it hasn’t been presented to the board yet. The YSU president’s office has only recently received it, and there’s been no determination yet of its feasibility from the university’s standpoint, he said.

Just how interested the board might be remains to be seen, Schulick said, adding that he’d like to believe there could be some support for it.

“I generally have some positive feelings about it,” he said.

Nearly 60 of YSU’s 132 university-registered student organizations request funding from SGA annually, Brown said, noting that the requests total about $150,000. The average request is nearly $2,600, but SGA has enough money to fund fewer than 50, and then can provide only about $750 per request, he said.

Brown said some groups don’t even bother to apply for assistance once they learn of the limited pool of funds available.

The SGA only funds requests that show a tie to the greater good of the university, and that won’t change, Brown said.

An individual might philosophically differ with a particular organization that receives funds, but that doesn’t mean that organization’s program might not offer some form of benefit to the university, he said. That scenario could occur under the current funding plan, but the SGA hasn’t had any complaints about it, he said.

Implementing the new fee would enable SGA to expand its financial support to individual students, meeting the organization requests while also having funds to meet individual requests for assistance in academic pursuits such as travel and participation in conferences or presentations of research or projects, he said.

None of the money would be used to increase or alter the SGA office, operating or staff budgets which are already covered by university funding, according to the proposal.

SGA is prepared to modify its own operations to deal with the increased responsibilities the additional funding would create.

Specifically, the proposal calls for the current Financial Appropriations Committee which handles all appropriations for student organizations to be divided into two groups — the Organizational Appropriations Committee to carry out those same functions, and the Academic Appropriations Committee to handle requests from independent students or groups of students under the sponsorship of a current faculty member.

Along with the fee, the proposal would ask the trustees to create an endowment fund open to public donors. That fund could be used for the growth and development of student government and its ability to reach out to its constituents, perhaps leading to the creation of an SGA scholarship program.

“With a greater appropriations budget Student Government can be the catalyst which can further fuel our student organizations and create a method to provide the funds that will inspire our students to achieve academic greatness,” according to the proposal.

This is an issue SGA has been talking about off and on for the past several years, Brown said, noting that a formal vote to recommend the fee to the trustees is expected Nov. 23 so it can be presented to the trustees early next spring.

“We would like to see this for next fall,” he said.

It will be up to the SGA to sell the idea to the students, Schulick said, adding that, if the students want it, the trustees aren’t likely to stand in their way.

gwin@vindy.com

What they say | YSU students

Youngstown State University’s Student Government Association is proposing that the university implement a $1 per credit hour fee on students to provide the organization with money to meet individual and student organization requests for funding. The fee would be capped at $12 for undergraduates and $9 for graduate students. Random students asked if they would support the fee offered these responses:

“I’d say yes. With all the fees we pay, I wouldn’t notice another dollar anyway.” — Melissa Dubaj of Boardman, junior psychology major.

“I’m not really sure. I already pay an organizational fee and do fundraising. I don’t want YSU to give me another fee.” — Jennifer Tomerlin of Niles, senior theater major.

“I agree (with the fee). We are part of an organization on campus — Sisters With A Vision (SWAV) — that does some fundraising and project funding.” — Danielle Reese of Cleveland, junior social work major.

“I agree. It’s hard coming up with money when you’re a broke college kid. Another source of funds would help.” — Shakenya Ingram of Columbus, sophomore social work major and another SWAV member.

“Not really. We are paying a lot just to go here.” — David Richardson of Wellsville, freshman business economics major.

“I’m opposed. It adds up.” — Justin Vallera of Wellsville, freshman criminal justice major.

“I agree [with the fee]. I’m a physical education major and we have to raise money to go to conferences and such, normally out of our own pockets. It would be great to get half of it (from SGA).” — Hope Bennett of Beaver Falls, Pa., also a SWAV member.