There are so many acronyms in student government that, honestly, even I sometimes get confused. I mean, ASUNM stands for Associated Students of the University of New Mexico, but it is such a mouthful that we just tend to stick to the five letters, even when someone might not know what ASUNM means.
SFRB is one of those acronyms that is tossed around in conversations and student government talk without ever being explained. Seeing as these are your student fees, I would like to explain SFRB to you.
SFRB: no, it does not stand for Santa Fe River Basin, although that was a friend of mine’s first guess. SFRB stands for Student Fee Review Board — but those words on their own sound arbitrary, so let me explain further.
Every student that attends UNM pays money to the University. This money is separated into two different sections: student tuition and student fees. The tuition is the money you are paying to attend classes, get an education, etc., while the fees help to fund many of the resources we take for granted.
These fees are split over the Resource Centers, SUB, Libraries, Student Health and Counseling, Athletics, Recreation Services, Parking and Transportation and other groups. However, the decision process of where these fees should go starts with YOUR student government.
The Student Fee Review Board is comprised of seven voting members and three alternate members. These members are both undergraduate and graduate students, in order to have the voices of both groups of constituents represented fairly. Every department that wants student fees submits its application in September, and then the SFRB spends two full weekends listening to these departments give brief presentations on what the funding would be utilized for.
This past week, the SFRB committee held two forums where students could come and express how they would prefer their fees be utilized. This was the opportunity for students to tell us where you want your fees to be applied.
The last step is deliberations. This past weekend, the board spent approximately 15 hours going through all of the applications to determine where we would place the millions of dollars in student fees in order to provide the best campus experience for you.
Although we are just a recommendation board to the entities that will finally decide where the student fees will be placed, such as the Budget Leadership Team and, eventually, the Board of Regents, the SFRB is a wonderful way for students to help determine where STUDENT money should be used.
Jenna Hagengruber is the 2015-16 ASUNM president. She can be reached at asunmprez@unm.edu.
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