If one were to venture onto the myStevens home page, click on the eBilling icon, and examine the long list of charges under “Account Activity,” one would notice a fee of around $245 labeled “Student Activity Fee.” Perhaps when compared to the exorbitant undergraduate spring tuition cost (which has just reached over $22,000), the student activity fee seems infinitesimal.
In fact, many students probably didn’t even know it existed.
The Student Activity fee is collected from every undergraduate student on campus. Multiplying a seemingly innocuous fee such as $250 by the approximate number of undergraduate students attending Stevens Institute of Technology for the 2014-2015 school year and that original $250 isn’t so small anymore.
Money that is collected from the Student Activity Fee drains into the Student Government Association’s operating budget and, in turn, this functioning body of elected student Senators vote to approve budgets for Registered Student Organizations that make up the diverse Stevens campus.
With a newly elected SGA leadership comes change. However, there has been much speculation regarding how Student Activity Fees are now going to be handled. As leaders on Stevens campus, SGA President Matthew Hunt and Vice President Vincent Raimondi are determined to inform the Stevens community what changes have occurred, the rationale behind these changes, and what to expect in the near future.
“The reason we have not reached out to the Stevens community is because we are not completely informed about all the changes that have been applied to the billing process,” said Hunt. “It is my responsibility to reflect the student body’s opinion, but I don’t want to give people the wrong information.”
Beginning next semester, all undergraduate students will see that the Student Activity Fee has been decreased from $245 to $200, which makes it seem as if the money not spent during the academic year allows for a lesser Student Activity Fee for the following year.
Raimondi clarified this misconception: “The whole goal is to make the cost of going to Stevens consistent over each semester, and there is a rationale behind why the cost is only $200. Hunt explained that Stevens Institute of Technology as a whole is implementing a new initiative to make the cost of going to Stevens consistent over each semester. The $200 Student Activity Fee, which will be applied to fall, summer and spring semesters, is a part of the Stevens initiative to maintain consistency.
RSOs have been concerned that the changes in the reduction in the Student Activity Fee will directly affect their budgets. David Inga, President of Phi Beta Lambda, voiced his concern: “The reduction in the budget directly impacts how many events we can have and reduces the quality overall.” Hunt wanted to clarify that the belief that RSOs are going to face difficulties when getting their budgets approved. “Our operating budget will look different, but the way the process looks now, the SGA will be apportioning roughly the same amount of money to RSOs,” said Hunt.
“You shouldn’t even see events directly impacted, and events are not going to be going away,” Raimondi said. Hunt mentioned that this coming Easter Sunday, the SGA will be meeting with Kristie Damell to voice the students’ concerns. At this meeting, Damell will also be able to give the SGA leadership and senators the answers that they need regarding the changes in billing.
“Once we have definitive answers, I will be voicing this information to the students for their opinions,” Hunt said. “Senators will be reaching out to class leaders, Emily Noonan, SGA CCSI, will reach out to subcommittee heads who will then reach out to heads of RSOs.”
In the near future, a campus survey will be sent out to get more of the student perspective. “The more opinions I can get, the better it will be going into meetings with high-level administration,” said Hunt.
For those who read this past week’s edition of the The Stute, “Mind of a Freshman” columnist and Managing Editor Lisa Mengotto stated in her opinion column that the Student Government Association “[has] age-old power and major influence on campus… The SGA [approves] what they like, without focusing on encouraging events to draw the rest of the student body out of their dorm rooms.” Raimondi and Hunt agreed that Ms. Mengotto brought up several “phenomenal” points.
“I think Lisa strayed a little bit factually, insinuating that we don’t have enough oversight,” said Hunt. “We do have meetings with the Office of Student life to inform the Senate what we should and shouldn’t be doing.”
The Student Government has three functions: provide student welfare, represent student interests, and distribute the money accordingly from the Student Activity Fund. “I think Lisa raised a point that the SGA needs to be more student-centric,” Hunt said. “Are we providing for student welfare? Are we representative to student interest? It’s time to realign what Lisa brought up.”
Overall, both Raimondi and Hunt want the students on campus to know that they are not trying to hide anything. “I don’t want the undergraduate community thinking that the changes are sketchy, or that the SGA is hiding anything from students,” said Hunt. “I think our mindset when we budget can be flawed, but in the end, Senators are always asking themselves whether or not particular events are good for campus.”
Raimondi added to Hunt’s point, stating “The tough part is finding out what exactly what our ‘campus’ is and what it wants.”
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