If you have lived in Long Beach long enough you know its weather can be chaotic. Better yet, if you were in Long Beach last week, you know that one day you could be wearing a raincoat and the next a swimsuit. The finances of the CSU system is just like this city’s weather — unsteady.
This semester, just when we expected not to hear the words fee and increase in the same sentence, we were disappointed once again. Last month, we woke up to the announcement that the semester fee for the incomplete Student Recreation and Wellness Center would be increased by $6. In addition to the original $110 fee that students voted for in 2007. This adds a total of $232 onto university fees per year. Students that plan to take summer classes after the completion of the recreation center will be charged an extra $83 dollars.
So let us dissect this fee increase, rather than just accepting yet another increment. In 2007, Matt Hubbard, University Student Union trustee-at-large stated that “Basically, students won’t have to pay for it until they can use it.” Yet before the center has even opened we’re being asked to pay more than what we originally voted for.
While it was reported on by the Daily 49er in 2007 and recently, it hasn’t been made celar by ASI directly to the students population that the fee will increase due to inflation every three years. This may not be the fault of ASI, but student apathy should not be taken advantage of. According to Chavez, the increase is based on the Consumer Price Index, which usually results in a 3 to 4 percent increase.
Though the $116 fee will be sustained over the next three years, do not be fooled by the single digit percentage; it adds up over time. The question is, however, how much? Well, over the next three years, this $6 increase will add up to $1.5 million in revenue — that’s not chump change.
All we hear about are inflation costs. The fee increase starts with $6, but where does it end?
The Daily 49er reported in 2007 that the fee will continue for 30 years and if there were a 3 percent increase every three years that would total to a 30 percent increase. Maybe students were naïve enough to ignore the fine print when they voted for the fee but maybe if they hadn’t of had students who, most of which wouldn’t see fee increase, vote they wouldn’t have overlooked this issue.
The ultimate annoyance, however, comes from the fact that there is a fee increase before students have gotten a chance to even enjoy the recreation center.
When voting took place in 2007, students were told that their colleagues would make decisions about the recreation center. Hubbard, in 2007, also stated, “Whatever the students want is what they will get.” The decision to implement this fee increase, however, was not made by students.
It is time to start asking questions about all the fee increases implemented. Chavez needs to take more of an initiative and fight for the students that voted for him last year.
This isn’t about $6. We would gladly pay an extra $6 for a recreation center we voted for. What this is about, however, is the seemingly arbitrary increase in fees or that, at least, ASI needs to step up their public relations effort.
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