Rifts over a proposal for a $75 facilities fee prompted three student senators to boycott a town hall meeting in opposition of the student government president on the Downtown campus.A previous proposal, a fee of $162.50 per semester, was voted down in an 11-2 vote last semester, said Tania Mendes, president of Associated Students of Arizona State University Downtown.
Beth Wischnia, vice president of the ASASUD, is in favor of the proposed $75 fee, which would be instituted in fall 2011.
“No one likes a fee, but they are a reality of today,” she said. “I think the facilities are necessary. The most recent proposal has been thought out and researched; we have a really good, concrete proposal.”
Under the proposal, students would pay an additional $75 each semester — on top of tuition and other University fees — to cover expansions of recreational facilities on all campuses.
Downtown senator Andres Cano, a journalism freshman, was one of the three senators who refused to attend the Friday discussion.
“We wanted to do something more productive with our time,” he said.
The senate spent the majority of last semester’s meetings discussing the fee proposal, Cano said.
He originally was in favor of the fee when he wrote a Letter to the Editor printed in The State Press on Oct. 9, praising what the fee could do. Now, Cano said, after reexamining what his constituents want, he opposes the fee.
The fee, which would be applied to all ASU students, was the topic of a survey targeted at the Downtown campus last semester.
Downtown students don’t want the fee, he said.
“We are moving on and going to continue to meet the needs of our Downtown students,” Cano said. “Our survey has showed that students are satisfied with facilities they have. The fee means an increase in tuition, no one wants that.”
Wischnia disputed the validity of the survey, which got 70 student responses.
“The survey did not get out to nearly as many students as we had, not nearly as many as we anticipated,” Wischnia said. “It gave us good findings but it did not provide anything concrete.”
Reach the reporter at kpatton4@asu.edu
