SAF jumping twice next year
May 31, 2002
The Services and Activity Fee (SAF) will increase twice next year -- $3 in the fall, and an additional $30 in the winter.
The SAF committee decided on next year's budget after hours of deliberation Wednesday, including a $3 general increase. Last year's committee approved a $30 fee increase, taking effect winter 2003 and lasting for 30 years, to help pay for the renovation of the recreational sports center, or IMA building.
The fee, commonly known as the student activities fee, is paid by every UW student, and will equal $96 per quarter next year, up from $93 per quarter this year.
The SAF helps fund the ASUW, Hall Heath and recreational sports, among other things; out of the three, only the ASUW saw an increase this year, with a 83-cent increase per student per quarter.
The 83-cent increase is unheard of for the ASUW, according to Eric Stride, an ASUW Board of Directors member at-large.
"It's the largest increase ASUW has had in recent memory," said Stride during yesterday's ASUW Board of Directors meeting.
$44,000 of the ASUW increase will help fund the online radio station, Rainy Dawg Radio, set to launch in October.
Elizabeth Webber, a SAF committee member, voted against approving the 83-cent increase for ASUW even though she sits on the Board of Directors and ran for ASUW vice president this year. She feels students are paying too many fees for services they are not necessarily using.
"We start to add fees [onto our own tuition] ... we're raising tuition ourselves," Webber said.
Specifically, Webber thought the radio station had not proved it was worth the increase. She cited a survey done by the Radio Station task force that, she said, was collected from 419 students and did not prove students wanted to pay for an Internet radio station.
Even though the portion of the SAF going to the radio station is little more than pocket change to individual students, Webber said the coins add up.
"My reservations (with the ASUW SAF increase) had to do with nickeling and dimeing of students," she explained.
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