Student fees to increase

By Katie Plona
Daily Staff Reporter

The University Board of Regents approved a $2 Michigan Student Assembly fee increase in June. This fee will be added to students' tuition bills in the fall.

During MSA elections in May, University students voted to support two fee increases for the coming school year. The regents gave final approval for the new costs at June's monthly meeting.

Money from one of the increases will be funneled into a separate fund to be used specifically for community-service initiatives.

In addition to the $1 fee to be used directly for community service, students can also expect to pay another dollar for the MSA Budget Priorities Committee's use in funding campus groups.

The two new student fees will increase the current $3.69 fee students already pay each semester to $5.69, starting this fall.

"I'm prepared to support what the students vote for themselves," Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann Arbor) said. "I feel real strongly that it's the students' business."

McGowan said her only concern in approving the MSA fees was the assurance that MSA executive officers stood behind the fee increases during their March campaign.

Assembly President Mike Nagrant and MSA Vice President Olga Savic guaranteed that students knew how the they sided when it came to fee increases - they would support whatever the students approved in last spring's MSA referendum. "I think that the regents are concerned for students' needs," Nagrant said. "They proved that today by approving the fee increases."

Regent Andrea Fisher Newman (R-Ann Arbor) voted against the fee increase. She said she did not support a mandatory MSA fee to be added to students' tuition bills.

"I'm not uncertain with the good work MSA does, but I believe we should be looking for ways to keep fees down," Newman said.

Approximately 5,000 students voted in March's elections, the largest number of student voters ever.

09-03-97