California officials are currently considering whether to offer state funding for UCSD’s summer session in order to provide more student services, according to UC Office of the President spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina.

“In 2001, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Berkeley started phasing in state funds,” Poorsina said. “In 2002, Davis started and by 2006, if everything goes well, all campuses will receive state funding for summer sessions.”

Currently, UCSD’s summer instruction is offered as an independent session without the state funding that the university receives for the fall, winter and spring quarters. However, in the coming week, the UC Office of the President will offer its proposed budget to the UC Board of Regents, which includes state funding for summer sessions at all remaining campuses, according to Poorsina.

In response to these discussions on the state level, UCSD Director of Summer Sessions Becky Arce has begun meeting with Office of Academic Affairs members.

Among the items being discussed are the types of courses and number of services that would be offered by the university. According to Arce, state funding would not take the decision-making power out of UCSD’s hands.

“The how, when and where — it’s all going to be done at the campus level,” Arce said.

In its meeting on Nov. 3, the A.S. Council discussed the possibility of receiving state funding and debated what services the council should provide to students attending summer sessions. At the meeting, A.S. President Jenn Pae said that the arrival of state funding made it a possibility for UCSD to combine its summer sessions into a traditional 10-week quarter. Though the university has not discussed this possibility, according to Arce, the councilmembers weighed in on the option.

“State funding would be more advantageous to the students because with state funding comes better services,” Song said. “But I haven’t decided yet on the 10-week quarter.”

With state funding, university services, including the university shuttles, would be provided during the summer, according to Arce. Additionally, most members of the council said that Associated Students should provide some academic services, such as A.S. Lecture Notes. Some, including A.S. Vice President External Rigo Marquez, also approved of offering programming events like concerts.

In order to pay for these services, a majority of the council informally agreed that a student activity fee should be collected from summer quarter students, though no vote was taken. A $21 student activity fee is currently collected from every registered student every quarter excluding summer.

“I think services such as A.S. Lecture Notes should be open, and we need to charge for them,” John Muir College Junior Senator Neil Spears said. “But because we cannot provide the same level of programming.”

Other members, however, said they thought that programming was not needed during the summer session. In the Nov. 3 meeting, Revelle College Junior Senator Kelly Vasant said that the summer session was not lacking in programming because programming mostly affects students living on campus. During the summer sessions, on-campus housing available to students is limited because the university rents much of it to camps and other unaffiliated groups.