After a year of furloughs, cuts in programs and classes, Cal State Long Beach students should prepare for an extra $2 charge added on to their University Student Union fee this fall.
The USU fee, originally $50 as of this semester, will raise $168 due to the Student Recreation and Wellness Center’s $116 fee and a $2 fee that has been added to the USU fee.
The fee was increased due to inflation purposes, according to Associated Students Inc. President Chris Chavez.
In 2007, students voted in favor of the student fee referendum for the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, which stated that in case of inflation, “the fee would be adjusted every three years from the date of the referendum passage, not to exceed the average Southern California Consumer Price Index [CPI],” according to a previous article by the Daily 49er. Chavez said in the article that the CPI usually doesn’t increase by more than 3-4 percent.
Chavez said that the USU will continue to provide as many services and programs as it can to the students.
The $2 addition to the fee will gain the USU more than $60,000 per semester.
“Unfortunately, it had to happen sometime,” Chavez said. “But the programs we can provide will be worth to students.”
The fee increase was recently found by the Daily 49er, but the university has not yet contacted students about the $2 added to the USU fee, which has caused anger by students over the situation.
“I feel like the university is not connecting with students anymore,” said Wendy Herrera, a senior psychology major. “As the year starts they say ‘here’s the new fee,’ and it’s messed up because some people don’t even use the USU.”
Paul Quezada, a sophomore social work major, said that it is important for students to know about the fee since tuition costs are not getting any lower. He said, “The main focus here is that [the university is] not informing us — they’re not doing their job.”
According to Chavez, the university is suppose to send an e-mail to notify students about the fee increase and understands the frustration students may feel. This is the second time this year a fee increase has been added for fall 2010, but students have yet to be notified about either fee through an official e-mail by the university.
Chavez said that maybe the university isn’t clear on who is supposed to send out the e-mail, but that usually it would be the Bursar’s Office located in Brotman Hall.
He said that, “Ultimately, we need to work with the university since it hasn’t sent a general notification.”
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