Students to vote on fee increase

Members of the Michigan Student Assembly are hoping students will check "Yes! Yes! Yes!" on ballots in next week's Michigan Student Assembly elections.

The assembly's "Yes! Yes! Yes!" campaign is symbolic of its efforts to gain student representation on the Board of Regents.

"I think voting "yes" is a chance to actually do what people across the country say students don't do anymore," said Bram Elias, co-chair of the student regent task force. "It's to be active in politics, in change, and in our lives."

Students will be asked on ballots to support or reject a $4-5 increase to the current $4.96 per semester mandatory student fee. Currently, the fee helps fund community service organizations, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union and MSA. The assembly receives $3.69 of each student's fee.

The ballot item will propose three student fee questions to students. The first question asks if students would agree to a $4 increase in the current student fee. The ballot will then ask students to agree to an increase of $4.50. And the last will ask if voters would pay an extra $5 to the student fee.

The increase would only last for the next three semesters in order to fund the initiative.

LSA first-year student Jon Hudson said student representation on the board is worth a fee increase.

"Eight dollars is a minimal sacrifice to have a student on the Board of Regents," Hudson said.

If students support the fee increase, MSA will propose the increase to the Board of Regents. If the regents approve the student fee increase, the money from the increase would be used to hire a firm to collect 400,000 signatures from Michigan voters in support of gaining student representation on the Board of Regents. MSA will have 180 days to collect the signatures.

But LSA sophomore Carlos Garcia said he would not support the fee increase or student representation on the board.

"I wouldn't vote for it," said Garcia. "I don't think having a student as a regent would make a major difference."

"If they used that money for scholarships, then I would vote for it," Garcia said.

03-13-98