Student fees were recommended to increase after the Undergraduate Student Government voted on them at an impromptu meeting Thursday.

The meeting took place at 6:00 p.m. in the Student Services Building after the weather forced a reschedule from Tuesday.

The Senate approved a recommendation for an increase to the student insurance fee by $32. The measure passed by a 13-0 vote with one abstention.

“With such large cuts that burden is placed on the students,” USG President Adrian Miller said. “If this state wants to lead in higher education, they need to fully fund all public institutes.”

Miller said it is a mandated increase and has to go up to be in compliance with the Affordable Care Act. The student insurance fee is one students can opt out of if they do not require insurance through the university.

Chancellor Rita Cheng said the university’s student insurance is a self- insured plan.

A recommendation for a $4 increase to athletics was approved by a 7-2 vote. Athletics originally requested a $9 increase. They have not seen an increase in three years. Cheng said this fee is to ensure the department meets their payments for the Saluki Way developments and the relative increase in scholarships for athletes.

reasurer Cameron Shulak, a junior from Louisville, Ky., studying aviation, said this was one of the more difficult decisions for the Senate regarding fees.

“There’s a lot of debate as to if the students or the ticket holders should be the ones to absorb a lot of the cost that the Athletic Department is inclined,” Shulak said.

The organization also approved a recommendation for a $3.60 increase on the information technology fee with a 12-0 vote and one abstention.

USG voted to approve a recommendation for a $2.50 increase to the mass transit fee by a 12-0 vote. Shulak said the money for this fee is mainly for the Saluki Express. He said there was a debate about whether every student should pay for this fee or just the ones who use the service.

“They explained to us – when the representatives from each of those few payments spoke to us the meeting before – and said that if only students that used it had to pay for it, then we wouldn’t have the economy to scale and operate the service,” he said. “It wouldn’t be able to exist.”

A recommendation for a Student Activity fee increase of $1.08 for the Night Safety Transit was approved by a 13-0 vote. Miller said recently there has been high demand for a Night Safety Transit bus.

“It’s not to take you to Kroger and run your errands,” Miller said. “If you do not feel safe walking home, call this number and get a ride. We’ve had a lot of issues with public safety and we want to make sure our students here on campus feel safe.”

He said the university has one van for Night Safety Transit and the new fee

would pay for a new bus.

USG approved a recommendation

for an increase to the Student Center Fee of $6 on a 7-6 vote. The original proposal was for $8. Miller said they approved the increase because the Student Center has seen big transitions in the past few years.

“We’ve gone from having a contract with Chartwells to having independent contracts,” Miller said. “There are a lot of state regulations that our student center has to go through to meet.”

Miller said there are future plans to renovate the Student Center. He said the vote to approve the support of the fee was close because students have been disappointed with some of the eateries.

“For a while we just had McDonald’s,” he said. “It’s also right now there’s some RSOs, there’s a cost for RSOs to be able to rent rooms and a cost for them to utilize the Student Center. You put student in the name and it should really be for the students.”

USG approved a recommendation for an increase to the Student Health Center of $4 on a 12-0 vote with one abstention.

Miller said the Student Health Center fee has not increased for several years.

“The Health Center fee serves a large student population,” Miller said. “It’s an excellent facility and it’s something that they’ve kept under wraps for a long time.”

Cheng said this fee is to pay for the cost of medical supplies and salaries for professionals, not for hiring new staff.

USG approved a recommendation for an increase to the student housing fee with a 10-1 vote with three abstentions.

Miller said while he does not know the exact cost of the housing fee, the fee cannot rise higher than 6 percent and the university has kept it close to

3 percent yearly. He said the fee would help improve buildings across campus to appeal to incoming freshmen and meet the needs of all students.

“That’s just common practice,” he said. “There is an ultimate goal, a master plan to replace all housing across campus to create better dormitories.”

Miller said a lot of the university’s housing was built in the 60s and 70s.

“The student of the 60s and 70s needs one much different than (those of) the student of today,” he said. “I think that’s the main focus to look at with our university and the transition phase we are in.”

Miller said when it comes to fees there is a certain line that must be met to sustain the current way of living and for future improvements for students.

“The thing is today with all the fees you have a bottom dollar you have to meet, you have that line that you have to meet,” Miller said. “There’s a certain point where you’ve let go of all the people you can and you have to pay the bills.”

These recommendations will be sent to the SIU Board of Trustees who will then vote on the ultimate decisions.

“To all the students at SIU, we’re trying to make this a better place for people to come and to really have a wonderful experience at SIU and in order to do that some of these fees have to go up,” Miller said.

Miller said the state has cut higher education funding for the university from $48 to about $43 million.

Miller said students should call or write Illinois congressmen to take the burden of fees off students’ backs.

USG also took RSO requests and swore in three new senators.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at @LukeNozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 268.