News
Segregated fees projected to rise
The Pointer
jglod170@uwsp.edu
With the semester winding down, the budgets for next year are finally being released to the public. The proposed auxiliary operations budget, including segregated fees, parking, housing and board, was brought to the Student Government Association before spring break.
“I think it’s about average,” said David Davila, SGA budget director. “I think all of the numbers so far look about what is needed, with the exceptions of SGA, which hasn’t been decided yet. The increases in housing and board seem to be appropriate for what they have planned in the coming years.”
Housing is looking at a proposed increase of approximately $252 or eight percent, while board is seeing an increase of $244 or 12 percent. Some of the initial increase will be due to incidental costs from removing Hyer Hall from usage such as roommate stipends for staff. Some of the lounges and kitchens in the halls will also be remodeled.
Also affecting the increase is the rise of minimum wage, which is hitting every area of the university’s budget.
Some savings will be found in the residence halls as they plan to discontinue room telephone services next year, saving $422,000.
Also seeing a slight increase this year is Health Services, $12 or 4.8 percent, and the University Centers, $7.80 or 1.6 percent. The increase for Health Services is being done to build their reserves to a reasonable level. The increase for the University Centers is due to the increase in minimum wage as well as the addition of a new staff member to help with reservations.
Student input is being attributed to the cause for keeping costs down in the University Centers. Students, faculty and staff are all members of the University Centers Advisory Policy Board, which approves the University Centers budgets.
“I think there has been a lot more student input this year than previous years. The University Centers did a good job cutting out unnecessary parts of their budget,” said Katie Kloth, SGA president and member of UCAPB.
The one budget that remains in limbo yet as it awaits approval is that of SGA’s, which includes the student organization annual budgets, subsidies and reserves for student requests. This budget will be coming up for approval before the SGA senate on Thursday, but estimates are already shaping around the projected increase.
“I think it will be more than 10 percent, but where above 10 percent, I don’t know,” said Davila.
SGA has also been working to improve student involvement and awareness of the budget process underway this year.
“Student government facilitated three open public meetings for anyone on campus to attend so they could learn about all the budgets on campus and have their input adequately given to the respective shared governance bodies,” said Kloth.
