Green Issue: Where does your student fee money go?

The Daily Lobo reached out to ASUNM to find out how student fees are distributed.

Delia Brennan, ASUNM chief of staff, emphasized that there are different categories of student fees.

The student activity fee is “the one we think about when we think of student fees. It goes to things like all the resource centers on campus. It goes toward athletics, it goes toward LoboRESPECT, the SHAC runs on it, the libraries and so on,” she said.

Brennan said the money that goes toward those fees have “stayed pretty consistent for at least the past two years” since she’s been on the board.

A fee increase will happen only to ensure that each group gets the money they deserve while not raising the amount of fees students pay, she said.

Another category of student fees is the debt service fee, which goes to fund University capital projects, she said.

“Things like Johnson Center, Anderson. And that fee increases based on the number of projects,” Brennan said. “Right now the University is doing a lot of projects, so that fee is increasing this year.”

There are also the ASUNM and GPSA fees, she said.

“That goes to fund student organizations,” Brennan said. “That amount stays exactly the same every year, there’s no increase in that amount.”

Refer to the info-box to see how student fee funds break down.

Kelly Urvanejo is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Kelly_Urvanejo.