Several faculty senators said they expect a lively debate from the full University Senate at the April 19 meeting.

The University Senate will vote on several recommendations to make the student fee review process more transparent at its April 19 meeting, although several student leaders have said the recommendations will be ineffective.

Last month, the senate’s Student Affairs Committee passed three recommendations to improve the process by which academic departments determine how much students will pay in mandatory fees every year. They recommended that departments requesting fees meet with a review committee and constituency groups before making their requests and justify how the fees will be used. However, some undergraduate senators said the Student Affairs Committee’s recommendations don’t adequately address the issue, so six signed a minority report to the Senate Executive Committee.

Yesterday, the committee voted to send both the original recommendations and the minority report – drafted by Student Government Association President and undergraduate senator Kaiyi Xie – to the full body for a debate and vote. Xie’s minority report states more time is needed for analysis of the issue and asks the bill be sent back to the Student Affairs Committee for further evaluation.

Several senators said they expect the minority report will generate plenty of debate before the vote.

“It’s going to get attention,” Senate Parliamentarian Marvin Breslow said. “When’s the last time you saw a minority report in the senate? Maybe once in the last 10 years, or something like that. … There should be a very full discussion.”

Xie and Graduate Student Government President Anna Bedford brought this issue to the senate in October, when they drafted a proposal that would require the Committee for the Review of Student Fees, which approves fee requests from university departments, to gather more student input before submitting their requests.

The proposal Xie and Bedford originally submitted called for the creation of a student advisory board to review fee requests before they reach the review committee and requiring that detailed minutes of the review committee meetings be taken. The Student Affairs committee did not accept either of these recommendations, prompting Xie to draft the minority report.

Although some faculty senators have said they are wary of a student-only review board voting against all proposed fee increases, Xie said he’s confident the committee would approve fees that are justified and transparent.

“I think the important thing in creating that kind of unit level review is to have it be as open and transparent as possible,” Xie said. “We would have to say why we want to put an additional financial burden on our fellow students. We just can’t vote down every single proposal that presents a fee because it costs more to students. I think there needs to be a kind of balance. I don’t think students are unreasonable or will be in the future.”

The executive committee also voted against sending the proposal back to the Student Affairs Committee – which chairwoman Rachel Cooper said did not have enough time to consider all recommendations – until after the full body meeting.

Senators said now that the Student Affairs Committee has passed its recommendations, it is up to the full body to take up the matter.

“The SEC would be saying this is a good interim step, but the determination of student fees is such an important issue that we recognize that these things need to have more time for discussion,” faculty senator and journalism professor Carol Rogers said. “Six people signed it – that’s a pretty big minority.”

“One would think a minority report might give this body pause,” said Staff Affairs Committee chairman Steve Petkas.

kirkwood@umdbk.com