Southern Utah University’s Student Association Senate held a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 29 to address student fee requests. This followed a previous meeting in early January, and multiple student fees were readdressed.
Recap
Some fees were approved at the initial meeting, and were not discussed further on Thursday including an SUUSA fee of $10.75, a Student Center Activity fee of $19, a Theater, Dance and Art Administration fee of $4 and a Thunder 91 fee of 10 cents.
Revisited Fee Requests
All fee requests that were denied in the first meeting were revisited and had a revote on Jan. 29.
Denied requests included an increased fee for SUU Athletics from $100 to $103 to fund travel and other expenses. SUU News’ denied fee of $5, as well as SUU Outdoor Recreation’s increased fee of $12 were also readdressed in the second meeting. These fees are used to fund student wages, equipment, monthly subscriptions and other resources.
The SUUSA Senate addressed concerns on the use of these student fee requests, including if the SUU Outdoor facility is being marketed and used to its fullest potential.
“We’ve worked with a lot of departments like STIL as well as the International Office,” said Assistant Director of SUU Outdoors Levi Pendleton. “We’ve been able to reach out the last couple of years to academic departments and build a partnership with them.”
After discussion, both of the increased fee requests for SUU Outdoors and SUU Athletics were approved.
SUU News Student Fee
In the previous meeting, SUU News’ $5 fee was denied. This fee is used to cover student wages and other expenses. However, after discussion, the SUUSA Senate revoted and the fee was approved.
SUU News Editor-In-Chief and representative Heather Turner addressed the senate’s questions and concerns about whether SUU News and the University Journal are necessary.
“We have a really loyal audience that engages with our content, but we do need to expand to the greater SUU student community because that’s who we serve,” said Turner. “If students don’t know the journal exists that reflects distribution and outreach gaps, not waste.”
After student fees were readdressed, multiple departments including SUU News have agreed to expand their marketing efforts and earn their fees.
The SUUSA senate votes as a recommending body. Final decisions will be made by the President’s Leadership Council, but will likely reflect how the student senate voted.
Both of the recent student fee meetings are recorded and available on the SUU Student Life Instagram. To stay up to date on future meetings and events, visit the SUUSA website.
Author: Briar Adams
Photo: Courtesy of Southern Utah University
Editor: Heather Turner
news@suunews.net
