Thurgood Marshall College students voted to reject a $4-per-quarter student activity fee increase, which would have generated an additional $43,000 a year, in a week-long special election held last week.
Of 3,710 registered Marshall students eligible to vote, 696, or 19 percent voted on the referendum. Approximately 48 percent of students voted in favor of the referendum, while 52 percent voted against the measure, according to Marshall Student Council Director of Finance Steve Geist. University policy requires fee increases to be passed by a simple majority, with at least 15 percent of eligible students turning out for the vote.
“Every year we get less and less funding from A.S., and basically we don’t have enough,” Marshall Student Council Chair Becky Lee said prior to the announcement of the results. “We hope to pass the initiative to keep the current programming. It will help level the playing ground with the other colleges.”
Freshman Helen Chan said she voted to reject the referendum because she felt it was unnecessary and didn’t benefit the students who would end up paying the higher fees.
“I understand why the council members proposed such an initiative, since they are just finding a way to improve students activities at Marshall,” she said. “But I don’t think raising the student fees by an extra $4 is the way.”
Marshall Senior Senator Kate Maull said that she thought it would be a good idea to “modestly raise the student fee,” but “it looks like the students didn’t agree,” she said.
“I feel sorry for all of the organizations who are going to suffer next year because we don’t have enough money for them,” Maull said. “Our financial situation is pretty bad right now, and it will only get worse next year.”
The new funds would have gone to events such as the college commuter board’s TGI Friday’s events, Winter Wonderland and Marshallpalooza.
Marshall has the lowest self-assessed student activity fee of the six colleges, at $2 per quarter, and takes in little more than $30,000, according to Geist. If passed, the newly generated funds would also have been available to all campus organizations.
The college would have increased the council’s annual revenue from $34,100 to $77,600 in student-assessed fees. Council-members proposed the increase to $6 because it would allow the body to maintain the current level of services and programming available to all Marshall students, while also providing funds to allow for the continued growth of organizations, according to Geist.
Marshall students last voted on student fees in winter 2002, when they instituted the $2 quarterly charge, which was implemented the following fall quarter, according to Lee.
Lee said she voted for the initiative because the fee increase provides more opportunities and is “absolutely beneficial to Marshall students.”
Marshall Sophomore Senator Jason Hoskins said he also supported the fee increase because the funds would help improve the students’ college experience.
“While academics is the highest priority at our university, it is our free festivals, programs and recreational facilities that improve student life,” Hoskins said. “Student-assessed fees are not tuition increases, which are forced increases. Student-assessed fees are fees students approve in order to increase the events, service and facilities that they have available to them during their university experience.”
The vote was coordinated separately from the spring A.S elections because Marshall Student Council members didn’t want the initiative to “get lost” amid the spring election, according to Lee. The vote was conducted online, similar to the format of campuswide elections.
“Voting online is easier and more accessible to students,” Lee said. “It makes it a fair election.”
