The Downtown Devil has produced a two-part series that takes an in-depth look at the details, process, active roles and origins of the implementation of a new student fee at Arizona State University.
Fee could cost students $22 million
The presidents of the five student governments are currently looking at $162.50 per semester for every ASU student as a more realistic figure for the facilities fee that was originally proposed to the ASASU Downtown Senate as $75 per semester.
According to information provided to the presidents by the University’s deans of student affairs, the larger figure being discussed would be necessary to accomplish the expansions sought by the student governments, ASASU Polytechnic President Matt McCoy said.
The Presidents’ Council, the collaborative body of the student government presidents, is currently discussing providing the Downtown, Polytechnic and West campuses with approximately 110,000 square feet for student facilities, said Andrew Clark, president of ASASU West. The Tempe campus, he said, would be provided with 90,000 square feet, plus funds for renovations.
McCoy and Clark said the proposals approved by senates seek to provide their campuses with single “fusion” facilities that would combine recreation, health and union facilities.
“We are ASU students … it’s important that we have adequate facilities at every campus,” McCoy said. “You want to have adequate facilities no matter where you go because you’re an ASU student attending classes at one of the campuses, and it should have fair and (adequate) services at each one of the locations.”
Based on ASU’s record-breaking enrollment of 67,802 students for fall 2009, a fee of $162.50 per semester would add up to more than $22 million in a single academic year.
The Undergraduate Student Government of the Tempe campus is expected to discuss their fee proposal at scheduled meeting Tuesday and will be followed by an ASASUD Senate meeting this Friday after a tie vote on their fee proposal Oct. 16. The Graduate and Professional Student Association met and discussed the fee last Friday while ASASUP and ASASUW approved their proposals of the fee in September.
McCoy said the Presidents’ Council currently plans for the fee to continue for 30 years as part of a debt service program that would not charge any student until the first of these facilities was complete. However, he, Clark, and USG President Brendan O’Kelly said the fee would probably end up being permanent.
“It’s just like taxes and the government—once it gets implemented you can talk about some set clauses, but the reality is they rarely go away,” Clark said. “The logistics is it should go away in 30 years; the political reality is it won’t.”
O’Kelly said he is currently opposed to the fee and wants to have several questions answered before considering the proposal.
“We want to know what’s going on, what it’s going to cost, what students are going to get as a benefit from these costs,” O’Kelly said. “Any fee that students are paying, they should see that money coming back to them in bigger and better things than just the original investments.”
Fee could cost students $22 million
The facilities fee would have to go through five levels of approval and development before becoming a reality at ASU, according to student government presidents and University officials.
James Rund, senior vice president for University Student Initiatives, said the fee was introduced as a means of accomplishing some of the goals laid out by student government.
“As we begin the academic year, (student government presidents) present a list of priorities to the institution that they want addressed—programs, services and the like,” he said. “In the course of that dialogue, the students themselves had an interest in doing much more programmatically, and that was really the genesis of the fee.”
Clark, ASASUW president, said he asked his fellow presidents if ASU was in fact “One university in many places” during a Presidents’ Council meeting in spring 2009.
Clark said the five presidents agreed the four campuses were a single university, so he presented a proposal for a facilities fee because he felt ASU had huge infrastructure needs.
“The original proposal, from me, was for a very small dollar amount to set a huge (priorities) list, and it’s just kind of taken a life of its own,” he said.
O’Kelly, USG president, said after the fee was proposed in the Presidents’ Council the presidents brought it back to their student governments.
“What we’re trying to gauge right now is how likely our senate will be to oppose or support the implementation of something like the facilities fee,” he said. “Once every (president) comes back with a decision (from their senate,) they all collaborate on it and then come to compromises.”
McCoy, ASASUP president, said he does not know how the other student governments work, but he would bring back any changes that occurred at the Presidents’ Council to his senate.
“Say the (ASASUP Senate) decided (to approve) up to $325 (per year,)” McCoy said. If the resolution at the Presidents’ Council was less than $325, “I wouldn’t have to confer (with my senate) because we support up to $325. But say it ended up being $330, it’d have to go back.”
Upon the Presidents’ Council approving a resolution, Rund said the presidents would negotiate more of the fee’s specifics when meeting with University officials, including himself.
“There is a whole range of details that need to be worked out,” Rund said. “How much is the fee, is it a graduated or incremental fee … how much revenue will it generate, what level of support will it provide. Are we building buildings or are we staffing programs?”
The presidents would then have to push the fee through several more stages before it could be implemented, he said.
“If they want to take the next step, I’m sure they will be recommending to the President (Michael Crow) a potential student fee for this purpose,” he said.
Clark said if the fee resolution were changed at the University level, he would go back to his student government to discuss it with his senate.
McCoy said there are many levels where the fee could die, including the senates, the Presidents’ Council and upon reaching the Arizona Board of Regents for final approval.
“Everyone could be on board,” he said. “You could have all five presidents on board, we could have administration completely behind us and it works great, (then) we take it to ABOR and it fails.”
Check back Thursday for Part II of the “Behind the Facilities Fee” series by the Downtown Devil.
LeeAnn DiSanti contributed to this report.
Contact the reporters at news@downtowndevil.com
