Student Association is looking into implementing a partial student activity fee of approximately $45 per semester for University College students.

SA Assemblymember David Woody presented data to members on Monday about UC student reaction to the idea of the fee. He also presented responses from UC students about difficulties they have had in gaining access to university activities or events, as well as their level of interest in attending future events. 

Woody e-mailed the survey to all of the approximately 1,000 UC students and received 214 responses. UC consists of part-time undergraduate and graduate students attending SU, Woody said.

Thirty-five percent of the 214 responses favored an activity fee, and 40 percent were against it, with the rest unsure of their opinion, according to a pie chart Woody presented at the meeting.

Woody also presented a bar graph of how often UC students attend campus events. Most said they never attend SU events besides guest speakers, he said. He then displayed a bar graph of what the UC students would like to attend if they had the chance. More than half said they were likely to attend a sporting event.

Woody said a majority of people said they would be ‘somewhat’ or ‘very likely’ to participate in events if they were offered at student prices. 

‘I think this represents well our objective in trying to figure out what University College students want to do or what they would do if we enacted a partial student fee,’ he said. 

Woody said the 25 percent that were ‘unsure’ of whether or not they wanted a fee was a high amount, but he also said he believes SU could win many students over in favor of the proposed fee. Having the fee and the access that comes with it could encourage UC students to seek out ways to take part in their campus community, Woody said.

Many UC students who were against the fee were older students with jobs and families who said they would not have the time or inclination to attend SU events, Woody said. Therefore, they would not want to spend the extra money on something they would not use, he said. 

The fee would end up being between one-third and one-half of the full-time student activity fee, Woody said. According to MySlice, the student activity fee is $185.

Near the end of the meeting, the assembly informally voted in favor of further pursuing a partial activity fee for UC students.

SA may look into a future town hall meeting with UC students to get more feedback, said Andrea Rosko, chair of the Board of Elections and Membership. Woody said the idea for UC students to pay a fee in the first place came from a UC town hall meeting last semester.

There was one UC student, senior paralegal student John Adams, in attendance. He was in favor of the partial student fee because he wanted student discounts, he said. 

Assemblymember Perry Russom said SA needs to think five or 10 years down the road to make this decision because he thinks more people will enroll in UC due to difficult economic times. 

‘I think we should do it,’ he said. ‘I think it’s hard to come up with one solid answer that’ll please everybody, but if people are asking to be included more and don’t feel like they’re part of the university, then we’re not doing our job.’

Other business discussed:

• SA voted to amend some financial codes to clarify the wording. Among the changes was the addition of Westcott Theater as an approved venue.

• SA President Neal Casey said there is no new information about the smoke-free campus initiative this week.

• Taylor Carr, chair of the Student Life Committee, said SA hopes to survey students during the Wegmans bus program on Saturday about the program.

spcotter@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm