The SGA voted on Wednesday night to support a proposed student fee that would fund the Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct.
Representatives of the Student Government Association had submitted a fee proposal Sept. 19 that would require students to pay $34 per year, generating nearly $1 million for this university’s Title IX office.
The vote was 32-1, with no abstentions.
“We worked really, really hard to get this done, and it means a lot to me,” said Taylor Aguiar, sexual misconduct prevention committee director.
The added fee would provide much-needed funding for the Title IX office, which has been underfunded since its establishment in 2014, director Catherine Carroll said. The office’s operating budget for fiscal 2016 was $725,000, paling in comparison to the $1 million Carroll requested.
“It’s incredibly challenging and need I say frustrating,” Carroll said Wednesday. “We just aren’t staffed to meet the demand … These issues are massive and the university has done very little, frankly.”
The funding would create five new positions within the office and hopefully make investigations more efficient. The Title IX office currently has four investigators that handle both sexual misconduct and civil rights cases, and investigations take more than twice as long as university policy suggests.
During the debate surrounding the bill — which was largely in favor of the legislation — several representatives expressed concern that this fee would set a precedent of students paying for services that the university might otherwise fund.
“I don’t think we should be charged for something that’s sort of a right we should have,” said Rachel Walker, a senior English and French major.
Student Affairs Vice President A.J. Pruitt, who worked closely with Carroll to draft the student fee proposal, spoke in favor of the bill, adding that he hopes “this does not establish a new status quo.”
University students currently pay $933 in student fees, and the Title IX fee is the second largest proposed fee increase this semester behind IT, according to a Diamondback article. Students had the opportunity to learn more about the Title IX fee, among other student fees, at a town hall meeting Tuesday.
“I didn’t know [about the fee proposal], but I guess it’s a good idea,” said junior sociology major Jess Glassman. “Any funding that goes to combat sexual violence is good in my book.”
Moving forward, a committee must approve the fee proposal along with all other proposed fees. Four SGA members serve on the committee alongside representatives from the University Senate, Residence Hall Association, Graduate Student Government and faculty. University President Wallace Loh must approve the fee before sending it along to the Board of Regents, which would make the final decision.
Pruitt, who worked closely with Carroll to draft the student fee proposal, spoke in favor of the bill, adding that he hopes “this does not establish a new status quo.”
University students currently pay $933 in student fees, and the Title IX fee is the second largest proposed fee this semester behind IT, according to a Diamondback article. Students had the opportunity to learn more about the Title IX fee, among other student fees, at a town hall meeting Tuesday.
“I didn’t know [about the fee proposal], but I guess it’s a good idea,” said junior sociology major Jess Glassman. “Any funding that goes to combat sexual violence is good in my book.”
Moving forward, a committee must approve the fee proposal along with all other proposed fees. Four SGA members serve on the committee alongside representatives from the University Senate, Residence Hall Association, Graduate Student Government and faculty. University President Wallace Loh must approve the fee before sending it along to the Board of Regents, which would make the final decision.
