Members of the Registration Fee Advisory Committee, which advises Student Affairs on how students’ registration fees are allocated, must take immediate steps to reduce their exorbitant pay. With fees rising, students can ill afford to see so much money — at least $1,600 for each regular member and far more for committee leadership — diverted from key programs.

Just two years ago, student representatives on the committee received no compensation, and today faculty members on the committee continue to perform their duties in advising Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph W. Watson without any additional wages.

Like student representatives on other equally important campuswide boards, including the Student Regulations Revision Committee and the Security Advisory Committee, members of RFAC must be willing to perform their jobs for the satisfaction and experience they receive by serving students, not for the paycheck.

At the very least, they must take a pay cut reflective of budget reductions in every other unit of Watson’s department, as some committee members have proposed.

Last year, the committee showed its irrelevance in the appropriation process of registration fee funds. Despite a strong committee recommendation not to do so, Watson provided funding for the Express to Success program, with a student-fee price tag of more than $40,000 per year.

At the very least, if Watson continues to pay members of RFAC — like everything else, the pay is at his discretion — he should allow them to start earning the money by actually giving them some degree of authority and responsibility.