A UF Board of Trustees committee will vote today on a new fee that would generate money for renewable energy sources on campus by charging students 50 cents per credit hour.
The renewable energy fee is expected to generate about $645,000 in revenue each year to fund projects such as solar panels, waste-to-energy programs and building upgrades at UF, said Kelly Moosbrugger, a recent UF graduate and the student representative from the UF Joint Sustainability Committee.
Moosbrugger and Adrian Erlenbach, Student Government secretary of environmental affairs, presented the case for the fee during the June meeting of the board's Educational Policy and Strategy Committee.
Moosbrugger said she was encouraged by the response she received from some of the trustees in June.
"I think the rest of them were pretty impressed that students were actually asking for this," Moosbrugger said.
The committee is scheduled to vote on the item during its meeting starting at 3:45 p.m.
Gators for a Sustainable Campus launched a campaign for the fee in fall 2006. About 78 percent of about 7,470 students who voted in spring 2007 SG elections said they would support the renewable energy fee in response to a referendum question.
Last spring, about 82 percent of 800 UF students who completed a survey about the fee said they would be willing to pay the fee even if it wasn't covered by their Bright Futures scholarship, according to the proposal.
Once put into place, Erlenbach said, a committee comprised of students, faculty and representatives from facilities such as the Physical Plant Department would decide which projects to fund.
However, the trustees' approval does not mean the fee will go into effect any time soon.
All fees must be approved by the Board of Governors, the State University System's highest governing body, said Bill Edmonds, the Board of Governors' spokesman.
UF's Division of Business Affairs would monitor the fee if passed.
Also discussed during the committee meetings today will be regulations to the Student Conduct Code, though a vote will not be taken.
The full meeting of the Board of Trustees will be Friday at 10:30 a.m.
