Student fee board begins meeting schedule

news@dailylobo.com

Last week, the Student Fee Review Board began the months-long process of determining the amount students will pay in activity fees next year and how that money will be divided up.

Seven voting members sit on the SFRB, two from graduate student government and five from undergraduate student government. Three additional students — two graduate students and one undergrad — serve as alternates and are nonvoting members. Four additional nonvoting members represent the interests of faculty and staff members. Each year, the board makes recommendations to the president about student activity fee amounts and allocations. The board will submit its recommendations for the 2013-14 school year early next year.

SFRB graduate student alternate member Matthew Rush said at the board meeting Thursday that the board’s goal for the 2013-14 academic year is to cover all expenses while still keeping the fees affordable. He said that before holding hearings to determine how student fees will be allocated among UNM organizations, the board decides on an approximate figure of what student fees should cost, which will then be adjusted up or down during the board’s deliberation process.

This is different from last year’s policy, which required that once an estimated fee was determined, it could be increased but not decreased. Rush said the new target fee policy allows for more flexibility.

“Last year, each person had to come in with a budget, the total amount of that budget had to account for the fee we had set. So people had to make a lot of cuts, which led to a lot of splitting hairs,” he said. “The target fee is supposed to be something we recommend, but it’s not a default in any way.”

Organizations who want SFRB funding must submit proposals by Dec. 17. Applications are available at unm.edu/~gpsa under the “SFRB” tab.

Impact on student fees

Board members discussed whether a proposed salary increase for UNM employees would mean organizations would want more money from the SFRB.

But SFRB member Debbie Morris, a nonvoting member, said the salary increase won’t be set in stone until March of next year, after the SFRB has already submitted its recommendations.

“You don’t want departments coming in saying ‘this department estimates a 3 percent raise or 2 percent raise,’” she said.
In other SFRB news

The board also changed its voting policy in that now, six out of seven members must vote in favor of a motion, rather than a three-quarter majority to pass.

Workshops for organizations seeking funding are tentatively set for Nov. 29 and 30.