As expected, the Georgetown University Student Association overwhelmingly approved Student Activities Fee Endowment reform on Sunday. The reform, which proposes an increased student activities fee, will face an online referendum from December 7 to December 9.

The reforms will be adopted if at least 2,000 students vote and a majority of voters support the bill. It’s unclear if the vote minimum will be difficult to reach; GUSA executive elections routinely surpass 2,000 votes, but this year’s GUSA Senate elections only received 2,150 total votes.

If passed, SAFE reform will also allocate the entirety of the student activities fee to student activities. Currently, half of the fee is allocated to a student activities endowment.

After weeks of town hall meetings, the GUSA Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee unanimously passed Student Activities Fee Endowment reform legislation on Wednesday night. The GUSA Senate will vote on the SAFE reform bill on Sunday.

The proposed reform will increase the student activities fee to $62.50 per semester during the 2011-2012 academic year. During the 2012-2013 academic year, the fee will be raised to $75 per semester. After that, the fee will increase indefinitely at the standard rate of inflation.

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Last night, the GUSA Financial and Appropriations Committee held its second town hall meeting to discuss the Student Activities Fee Endowment reform plan.

Attendees discussed the previously proposed reform plan, as well as a potential increase in the student activities fee. According to Greg Laverriere (COL ’12), FinApp Committee chairperson, Georgetown’s student activities fee is less than 75 percent of fees at peer institutions. The proposed increase could range from $5 to $100.

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Time for some pizza parties

On Sunday, the GUSA Senate voted to create budgets for the Student Life, Community-Building and Outreach, and Academic Affairs Committees to draw small amounts of money from without going to the Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Student Life and Academic Affairs recieved $250 each, while Community-Building and Outreach snagged $500.

The budgets are not set in stone, though; if a committee exceeds its budget, it will simply revert back to the old plan of approval of case-by-case, itemized appeals. The bill passed almost unanimously, with only one tongue-in-cheek “nay” vote.

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The 2010-2011 Georgetown University Student Association Senators were sworn in on Sunday, officially beginning the year’s agenda. While the meeting was heavy on ideas and questions from the senators and light on formal votes, the discussions suggest that many of last year’s issues will rear their heads soon.

Chris Pigott (COL’12), last year’s Senate Vice-Speaker, moderated the meeting.

Student Activities Fee and Endowment Reform (SAFE Reform)

In 2001, a system was set up to allocate half of the Student Activities fee to student organizations, club sports, and the media board. The other half went to an endowment, which, according to the plan, would eventually become self-sustaining and eliminate the need to collect a student activities fee from each student on a semester basis.

At the current interest rates, however, GUSA representatives are concerned that students wouldn’t see the effect of the endowment plan until at least 2025. Let’s hope that the Finance and Appropriation Committee looks into the endowment money and creates a plan to speed up the process.

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If we learned anything about the GUSA Senate this Monday night it’s that they have a USPS-like devotion to braving the elements.  As the rest of the school buckled down for our second-consecutive snow day, the Senate reaffirmed that neither snow nor gloom of night would interfere with its commitment to legislating.

And legislate it did, slogging through a two-hour discussion before passing the controversial Act to Modify the By-laws to Improve Student Activities Funding by a vote of 19 to four.  The bill will strip advisory boards of their votes on allocating the Student Activities Fee, giving control of the process to GUSA’s Finance and Appropriations Committee.

The meeting opened with a period of public comment on the bill.  The three student who spoke all expressed opposition to the changes.  Nick Calta (COL ’10), Chair of the Advisory Board for Club Sports, cautioned that the bill would create “the potential for really wide fluctuations in funding”; a representative from the Center for Social Justice decried the adversarial tone of the debate and urged senators to think about “what kind of leadership this legislation is promoting”; and former GUSA Senator and current GUSA Presidential Candidate Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) warned that it would be “a huge mistake” to pass the bill.

After a quick executive briefing—in which GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11), when asked by a Senator about his stance, said he “fully endorsed” the bill—the act’s co-sponsors, Senators Nick Troiano (COL ’11, Village A: A-D) and Colton Malkerson (COL ’13, Harbin 2-5), gave their spiel about bill, explaining what exactly it would change and why they believe it is necessary.

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Looks like the war between GUSA and the Student Activities Commission is heating up: The Voice has obtained the draft of a bill (below) that proposes to give GUSA complete control over the entire Student Activities Fee.

Currently, the Student Activities Fee is administered by GUSA’s Finance and Appropriation Committee and six funding boards: Media Board, Club Sports, the Performing Arts Advisory Council, the Georgetown Program Board, SAC, and the Center for Social Justice.

At the annual spring Budget Summit the groups divvy the money (around $650,000) amongst themselves and try to come up with a unanimous vote. If, after six days, the vote isn’t unanimous, a majority vote decides money allocation.

This new legislation would change that, making GUSA’s Finance and Appropriation Committee the only board members with votes. There’s more, including the estimated timeframe for the bill, at the Voice site.

After the jump, check out the draft of the bill.

Reporting by Kara Brandeisky

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GUSA debates rats and the perennial publicity problem

STUDENT ACTIVITIES FEES: The Senate waded further into the morass of club funding, passing a bill about the Student Activities Fee. Students currently pay a $100 Student Activities Fee, half of which goes into the student activities budget, and the other half of which goes into a student activities portion of the endowment.

Students cannot use the student activities portion of the endowment until the total sum reaches $10 million, and the interest accrued on the account is rolled over into the university endowment.

Many Senators weren’t too happy about that arrangement.

“They’ve been robbing us,” Josh Mogil (SFS ’11—Off Campus) said.  “It’s completely unacceptable.”

GUSA wants the interest to be put into the student activity fee account, and they want to consider a way to recoup the interest that has already been rolled over into the University’s endowment. Some Senators voiced concern that it would be difficult to get the administration to implement such a policy, though.

RATS: Senator Arman Ismail (COL ’11—Reynolds) has found his issue: Rats.  He wants GUSA to step in and address the rodent menace plaguing campus.

However, Mogil voiced concerns that such a project would harm “the spirit of the new GUSA.”

“I’d like to remind everyone that if we tackle a problem we can’t solve, it’s not going to help our image,” Mogil noted.  He said GUSA is not the right body to eradicate the rats, and expressed concern that “The Hoya will cover it in their front article: ‘GUSA tries to kill rats, complete failure.’ Everyone will be laughing at us, it will be embarrassing.”

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