Student Activities may change the way student activity funds are distributed among student organizations.
The funds come directly from AU students, who are billed a compulsory activity fee each semester. Full-time undergraduates pay $73.50 per semester. Part-time students pay $15. Graduate students, regardless of their enrollment status, pay $30 per semester, according to the University website.
The reason for reevaluating the current model is twofold. Several organizations that currently do not receive funding, such as the Fraternity and Sorority Life Programming Board, have expressed interest in receiving a portion of the funds, while some student organizations that regularly receive funding have not spent their full allotment, said Andrew Toczydlowski in Student Activities, who coordinates governance and leadership.
Student Activities has organized a committee to evaluate and potentially restructure the current fund distribution model, which has been in place for over 10 years.
Committee members will include leaders from Student Government, the Graduate Leadership Council, the Media Board, the AU Club Council, The Eagle, the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association and the National Pan-Hellenic Conference.
Ki’tay Davidson, chair of the AU Club Council and a member of the funds redistribution committee, supports the reevaluation of funds distribution and believes it should be done every few years to ensure that funds are used efficiently.
“I think it’s a great conversation to have,” Davidson said.
Currently, the fees collected from undergraduates are broken up into:
72 percent to Student Government
14 percent to the Media Board (which oversees all student media groups except The Eagle)
14 percent to the AUCC (which oversees the various student clubs on campus).
For the fees collected from graduate students, 86 percent goes to the Graduate Leadership Council and 14 percent to the AUCC, according to Toczydlowski.
The funds redistribution committee will also discuss whether or not to raise the fee.
“The last time the fees were raised was in 2002,” Toczydlowski wrote in an email.
It is too early to tell if fee increases are likely, but it is something the University is considering, SG Comptroller and committee member Eric Reath said.
Davidson favors a fee increase. She said the benefits from the extra funds, such as more University-sponsored events, would outweigh the slight increase in costs to each student.
The committee will consult a study done by the Educational Advisory Board, a higher education research firm, to guide their decision-making. The EAB released a report in June 2011 assessing the student activity fee structure at several colleges and universities, including nearby institutions such as Howard University and Georgetown University.
Howard and Georgetown respectively charge students $125 and $150 for activity fees per year.
Any proposed changes will need to be approved by Student Activities and Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson, but may go as high as needing approval from the Board of Trustees, Toczydlowski said. The proposed changes may go into effect as early as fall 2012.
No committee meetings have been scheduled yet, but the committee members said they are willing to consider all options during the reevaluation process.
“Everything is on the table,” Toczydlowski said. “Everything could change.”
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