Student service fee soon to be distributed
Veronica Wilson
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: News
The UMD registrar states that students are obligated to pay $508.96 in student fees during the 2008-2009 school year. The question that is on some students' minds is "how is this money being distributed and is it benefiting us?"
Recreation Facilities Manager Chris Stevens said he remembers being a student and not knowing where his money was being spent, just knowing that he had to pay. That's why he finds it especially important to put students' money to good use.
According to Stevens, a lot of the student fees are used to support Health Services, Recreation Sports, Kirby Student Center and Athletics.
"We call them the Big Four because they make up about 95 percent of the fee," Stevens estimated.
Along with the Big Four, organizations including the UMD Statesman, Student Association (SA) and the Tweed Museum, to name a few, prepare presentations "justifying how they are going to spend the funds," Stevens said.
Stevens said the presentations are then shown to a committee composed of students, faculty and staff volunteers. The committee is ultimately in control of deciding how much money each department receives.
According to Stevens, this year the committee faces the challenge of seeing proposals with higher requests for money than in past years.
"We need to make sure it's worthwhile for the students to have any sort of increase," Stevens said. "It's extra money that's coming out of the students pocket. That's why I think the committee is so important."
Stevens said the committee uses eight criteria when deciding how much funding to provide each department: accessibility to students, fiscal responsibility, advisory board participation, contribution to cultural diversity, user fees and other funds, value to student body, quality of services and uniqueness of opportunities and services.
Once the presentations are given, the money from the student fee is then distributed to the various organizations.
After receiving their funds, SA has the unique job of dispensing the funds among student clubs around campus.
"Student organizations come to us, and they come to our student Budget Loans and Grant Committee," said Jonathan Lundberg, SA representative at large.
Lundberg said the student clubs present to a committee composed of SA members requesting a certain amount of money and justify how they are going to spend the money. SA then determines how much money the club will receive based off the club's proposal.
Both committees share a common goal of trying to spend money in a way that best accommodates students' needs.
"We base [decisions] off of what we feel is important to students," Stevens said. "We have to justify how we're going to spend student dollars."
Decisions on how the money is to be distributed among the various student organizations and clubs will be determined sometime later this spring. The exact time is unknown.
Recreation Facilities Manager Chris Stevens said he remembers being a student and not knowing where his money was being spent, just knowing that he had to pay. That's why he finds it especially important to put students' money to good use.
According to Stevens, a lot of the student fees are used to support Health Services, Recreation Sports, Kirby Student Center and Athletics.
"We call them the Big Four because they make up about 95 percent of the fee," Stevens estimated.
Along with the Big Four, organizations including the UMD Statesman, Student Association (SA) and the Tweed Museum, to name a few, prepare presentations "justifying how they are going to spend the funds," Stevens said.
Stevens said the presentations are then shown to a committee composed of students, faculty and staff volunteers. The committee is ultimately in control of deciding how much money each department receives.
According to Stevens, this year the committee faces the challenge of seeing proposals with higher requests for money than in past years.
"We need to make sure it's worthwhile for the students to have any sort of increase," Stevens said. "It's extra money that's coming out of the students pocket. That's why I think the committee is so important."
Stevens said the committee uses eight criteria when deciding how much funding to provide each department: accessibility to students, fiscal responsibility, advisory board participation, contribution to cultural diversity, user fees and other funds, value to student body, quality of services and uniqueness of opportunities and services.
Once the presentations are given, the money from the student fee is then distributed to the various organizations.
After receiving their funds, SA has the unique job of dispensing the funds among student clubs around campus.
"Student organizations come to us, and they come to our student Budget Loans and Grant Committee," said Jonathan Lundberg, SA representative at large.
Lundberg said the student clubs present to a committee composed of SA members requesting a certain amount of money and justify how they are going to spend the money. SA then determines how much money the club will receive based off the club's proposal.
Both committees share a common goal of trying to spend money in a way that best accommodates students' needs.
"We base [decisions] off of what we feel is important to students," Stevens said. "We have to justify how we're going to spend student dollars."
Decisions on how the money is to be distributed among the various student organizations and clubs will be determined sometime later this spring. The exact time is unknown.
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