UF students may see an increase in fees in the 2019-2020 school year.
The local fee committee approved a motion to recommend an increase in the overall health fee for the Disability Resource Center, the Dean of Students Office and the Activity and Service Fee. The seven-member committee rejected a proposal to increase athletic fees.
This is the first time the committee has agreed to increase fees since 2014, said Kim Pace, the assistant vice president for Student Affairs.
The committee approved a 3 percent increase of about 57 cents per credit hour for the A&S Fee, which allocates money to the Reitz Union, Student Government and Student Activities and Involvement. After the increase, the fee will total to 19.63 cents per credit hour.
The recommended fee increases will be sent to UF President Kent Fuchs who will then present the recommendations to the Board of Trustees, which may meet in December for final approval.
“All of those fees are a necessity that will impact the lives of students,” said Student Body Vice President David Enriquez.
The 3 percent increase would maintain stable facilities for students, said Emily Dunson, the chair of the SG budget and appropriations committee. She said there is not any flexibility in the SG budget, and a fee increase would help them get money from an alternate source to keep up with UF’s development.
“It’s a not a wish list — it’s a needs list,” Dunson said.
The committee also approved a 9 cent fee increase for the Disability Resource Center and 5 cent increase for the Dean of Students Office. The center said it can now hire a new position and allocate money for outreach and programming.
The center’s aim was to fund assistive technology, such as live captioning and interpretive services, disability advocacy training and a UF Collegiate Summit, which aims to connect students across the state with disabilities, said Gerry Altamirano, the program director of the Disability Resource Center.
The Dean of Students Office also received approval for a 5 cent increase that would go toward hiring a new case manager that would help address the increased traffic for the office’s Care Team.
The amount of U Matter, We Care cases have tripled over the past year, said Heather White, the associate vice president of the Dean of Students. Factors such as Hurricane Michael, political tension, controversial campus events and immigration policy changes have added to the increase of students needing to be seen. The case manager ratio last year was 396 students to one advisor, but this year, the ratio nearly quadrupled at 1,452 student cases to one advisor.
The Dean of Students Office also covers the Field and Fork Pantry, White said. More than 30 percent of students experience food insecurities, with an extra 4,000 visitors utilizing the Pantry in comparison to last year’s totals.
Four out of the seven committee members failed a motion to increase athletic fees upon request of the University Athletic Association, which asked for a $1 increase to its current fee of $1.90. The UAA said the request would go toward implementing mobile ticketing and WiFi access in the football stadium. The UAA has had the same fee since 1992.
Student members sitting on the committee argued that students may not feel inclined to pay the extra dollar in fees.
The committee agreed that in order to maintain UF’s ranking as a top eight public institution, it is imperative to expand accessibility and allow UF to compete with comparable universities.
During deliberations, Enriquez said these requests were modest and conservative.
“When it comes to the issue of mental health and making sure students are being taking care of, there’s a tremendous risk when we don’t provide the resources to our students,” Enriquez said.
Contact Alyssa Ramos at aramos@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @LysKRamos
Contact Dana Cassidy at dcassidy@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @danacassidy_
In the 2012-13 school year, the Disability Resource Center center served 1,214 students. This academic year, that rose to 3,055.
