The facilities fee vote was postponed Friday and rescheduled for the Dec. 4 meeting of the ASASUD Senate.
President Tania Mendes, who initiated the postponement, said the reason for waiting was due to a lack of consensus among the campuses.
“We’re all over the place,” Mendes said. “We’ve made an executive board decision that we think that we should hold off at this time.”
Mendes said she wanted senators to get to know their constituents better and until they had a good understanding of what students want, there would be no vote.
“We kind of need to back up and see how we can reach out to all those students in our college,” Mendes said. “And not only just to see ‘do you accept this fee or not’ ⎯ that is not our only agenda for this year.”
Sophomore Sen. Lindsay Fletcher, of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership, said she was relieved that the vote was postponed.
“It will give us more time to poll our constituents and get a better idea of what students think,” she said.
Fletcher also said that this fee has faced a lot of hesitancy and opposition, and the Presidents’ Council was smart for waiting.
“They don’t want to rush through such a controversial issue,” Fletcher said.
Junior Sen. Justin Hoffman, of Barrett, the Honors College, said he also agreed postponing the vote was the right thing for the Presidents’ Council to do.
“What are their other options?” Hoffman said, later adding: “I think if (the facilities fee) had been voted on, it would have failed.”
Mendes also introduced new information to the Senate about the proposal. The original $75 per semester fee is now set at $162.50 with a projected length of 30 years, however, it will most likely stay permanent, Mendes said.
Fletcher said she was concerned that the number had doubled from the original proposal.
“Who’s to say it’s not going to go up again?” she said.
With all of the new information being presented and the arisen uncertainty, Mendes said senators should put together a survey and get feedback from students.
“I think that will really help us with not only making decisions on this but also with seeing what the needs are on our campus,” Mendes said.
Hoffman said a survey is fine, but there needs to be additional research and fact-checking as well.
“I think it needs to be a full disclosure survey,” Hoffman said. “We need to figure out what level students are willing to pay.”
Senators will have until Dec. 4 to survey their constituents before recasting their votes. Mendes said at that point, she would feel comfortable taking her vote to the Presidents’ Council.
However, she said if the council decides to vote before Dec. 4, she will ask to postpone their vote until her Senate has come to an agreement.
Contact the reporter at jvonsche@asu.edu
