Students at the University of Arizona met this week to reevaluate the way they allocate student fee money to organizations and student projects.

The Student Services Fee Advisory Board will review student surveys and applications for fees to make sure that the money provided by students will most directly benefit students. The board will also strive to keep its decisions transparent to the campus community to maintain its integrity and will strive for excellence by carefully making its decisions.

Matthew Totlis, a Mathematics major and senior who serves as the advisory board chair, outlined his goals for the allocation as providing for impact, integrity and excellence. 
 
Another attendee, graduate student Lon Huber, made specific suggestions for how the funds will be allocated. “I’d like to see more into energy efficiency and renewable energy that can actually save the campus money down the road,” he said.

Huber also highlighted one of the common concerns in recent student fee conversations: “I think it’s important to…make sure that student money is spent wisely,” he said.

While the students at the University of Arizona are conducting their business with transparency and civility, the allocation of student fees is a highly-disputed process elsewhere in the country. This week, the Supreme Court accepted a case on the allocation of student fees at Hastings Law School at the University of California.

Earlier this semester, students at North Carolina State University protested the Student Senate’s choice to use fees to renovate their student center, claiming that the student body was not adequately informed of the decision beforehand. Students further down south at the University of Georgia also gained partial control over student fees that had previously been allocated by university staff.


More from the Arizona Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona
More from the National Student News Service
Even more from the National Student News Service