Budget proposals met overwhelming approval at the RHA meeting Tuesday night due to departments’ efforts to keep student fees low.
The Residence Hall Association voted in favor of three budget proposals by the departments of Resident Life and Residential Facilities, Dining Services and Transportation Services. Though certain concerns about budget cuts were renewed, they were ultimately overruled in light of each department’s attempts to keep student costs in mind. The three departments proposed student fee increases ranging from 1 to 3 percent, jumps that are typical from year to year.
“They’re only doing it so they don’t increase student fees, which I’m fully in support of,” RHA student groups liaison Ellie Farr said.
Other senators less in favor of the proposals eventually conceded that budget cuts were inevitable due to state-mandated increases in tuition and a volatile economy.
“There’s nothing we can really do about the budgets,” junior history and secondary education major and South Campus Commons senator Laura Murphy said. “The departments have done what they can to minimize costs.”
Concerns still lingered among senators, however, over Resident Life’s potential elimination of dorm landlines and DOTS’ plans to decrease on-campus parking. Both efforts, senators said, would cut department revenue.
Though Resident Life is still surveying on-campus students about their landline usage, the potential elimination of the phone lines could save the department $71,870 for the 2011 fiscal year.
Despite the issue being raised during the meeting, the debate was dropped because Resident Life has not yet decided on a course of action.
“[The department] need[s] to continue doing the survey before they do anything about that,” Commons senator Yoni Levy said. “So, for now, we don’t see that as an issue.”
Levy questioned DOTS’ aspirations to reduce on-campus parking in an effort to cut back on carbon emissions. Though the measure is environmentally friendly, senators pointed out it is not economically savvy.
“I’m not sure the sustainability plan to remove cars from campus was fully thought out,” said Levy, a senior Arabic studies major. “Even without the current financial crisis, removing on-campus parking would mean lost revenue that DOTS would need to recuperate somehow anyways.”
Commons senator Debbie Kobrin agreed the department’s sustainability and cost-efficiency goals may be inconsistent but defended DOTS’ sustainability motives.
“Does DOTS have a concrete solution? I don’t think so,” Kobrin said. “I think the good news is that it’s still open to discussion.”
The Commitee for the Review of Student Fees, of which RHA President Josef Mensah is a member, will meet Feb. 22 to review the potential student fee increases in the budget proposal.
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