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GSG renounces new fees proposed by Council of Presidents

Following memorandums proposing additional fees to tuition, GSG officially opposes the charges

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"A main conflict surrounding additional fees lies within the student body itself, because some students don’t believe they should be paying for services they aren’t using."


After the proposal of several new tuition surcharges during the 2024-2025 school year, the Graduate Student Government clarified its disapproval of student-initiated fees at an assembly meeting on Jan. 17. 

GSG approved legislation speaking out against three additional fees proposed by the Council of Presidents — a council of all five presidents from each ASU student government organization. 

The legislation also directs Kelly Baur, a graduate student studying linguistics and applied linguistics and the Graduate Student Body president, to vote against any movement to implement the extra fees. 

The three fee adjustments discussed within GSG are under the recreation, transportation and athletics categories. 

The recreation fee and athletics fee adjustments will be applied to already existing fees. However, the proposal is also requesting to implement a new transportation fee. A transportation fee is not currently charged, according to the Council of Presidents' transportation memorandum. 

Within the student body, some students do not believe they should be paying for services they are not using.

"We’re students, it’s already hard on us, we shouldn’t pay that much more," said Aljuri Alduhailan, a freshman studying finance. "We already have rent. We have other stuff to pay for."

Alduhailan said she believes the University should use its own resources to cover the costs of improvements. She also said that a lot of the fees are for services she doesn't use, such as transportation. 

"If you use it, then you pay for it," Alduhailan said. "If you don’t use it, why should you pay for it? Why should I be paying for other students?" 

This sentiment was shared by Ileana Camargo, a sophomore studying public policy, who also disapproved of the fees. 

"They’re (additional fees) not relevant to the services that I use at school," Camargo said. "I don’t understand why I would be charged for them."

GSG's concern is they don’t know how these extra charges will be implemented into new facilities that are listed in the proposal, according to Michael Kintscher, a graduate student studying computer science and the GSG Assembly president.


Kintscher also said that in order for student organizations to receive funding from the University for resources, they need to submit an outline providing details of what the money will be used for. Kintscher said this process is not reciprocated by the University. 

"Transparency is good, but it's more like a mutual respect thing," Kintscher said. "If we need to put that kind of effort into spending the University's money, the University should put that kind of effort into spending our money."

Baur and Kintscher said they were also upset about the "Student Service Facility student-initiated fee" approved in 2023 under the reasoning the money would go toward expanding the Student Union on the Polytechnic Campus. 

Baur said even though the fees were meant for renovations to the Polytechnic Campus, they had yet to see any start on the proposed renovations. 

According to a document from an Arizona Board of Regents meeting in September 2024, the plan to expand and renovate the Polytechnic Student Union has not been abandoned and is mentioned in ABOR policy along with future developments. 

Despite budgeting for the expansion, Baur said she had not seen any progress using the additional fees.

The vote against the new student-initiated fees was a message to the Council of Presidents and to the University Administration, that the additional fees, as they are now, are not backed by GSG. 

"The whole graduate student body can be outraged and vote 'no' on the student fees, and then they still get implemented anyway," Baur said. "If that's the case, why are we calling them student-initiated fees?"

Baur said the fees are an attempt by the University to garner more money from students. 

"I don't believe this is actual money that the University needs," Baur said. "If it was a real need, ASU has a lot of other funding sources than just taxing students."

Edited by George Headley, Sophia Ramirez and Katrina Michalak. 


Reach the reporter at ehprest1@asu.edu and follow @ellis_reports on X.  

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Ellis PrestonPolitics Reporter

Ellis is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication. This is her first semester with The State Press. She has also worked at Arizona PBS and Blaze Radio.


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