Students at Eleanor Roosevelt College will be voting on whether or not to levy an activity fee this week. The proposal stipulates the establishment of a $5 activity fee per quarter, which would increase by $2.50 every fifth year thereafter. The ERC Student Council would allocate the funds among the various ERC activities and clubs.
This activity fee was previously proposed and defeated by eight votes during the 2002 winter quarter. According to Tom Chapman, ERC junior and A.S. Council freshman interim senator, this narrow margin persuaded the council to try again with a slightly altered referendum.
The bulk of the funding the individual colleges receive for student activities comes directly from the A.S. Council.
“”ERC is the first college to run out of funds every year,”” he said.
As Chapman noted, the lower ERC enrollment leads to a deficit in funds for Student Council at ERC activities.
“”Unfortunately, there is generally a base cost for putting on student activities, regardless of the actual number of participants,”” Chapman said.
Most ERC students approached about the referendum either did not yet know about it or did not feel informed enough to make a decision. Chapman indicated that informational e-mails would be sent out before voting commenced.
Some students feel dubious about the legitimacy of the referendum’s benefits.
“”I think this [referendum] sounds sleazy. They are so vague in the way it’s worded,”” said Tristan Wand, a fifth-year student at ERC.
Wand stated that after seeing the information available, he did not plan to vote on the referendum.
“”Five dollars a quarter is really not that much,”” said Thor Aye, a freshman at Roosevelt. “”Even if they don’t come through on all these promises, they are still offering us a lot. I think [SCERC] could do a better job if they had more funding.””
Many upperclassmen tended to side with Wand’s feelings toward the proposed fee increase. Though student activities are open to all classes, most nonfreshmen do not live on campus and therefore do not hear about or attend their college’s functions. On-campus student activities often bear the “”Welcome Week”” connotation of being organized with the younger classes in mind.
Unlike some previous campus-wide referendums, Chapman said that all of the money raised by this new fee would be managed by and used solely for the ERC students.
