Committee votes for fee increase

The Committee for the Review of Student Fees voted unanimously Thursday for an additional student fee to help pay for the creation of clean energy and efficiency programs.

A referendum on the act was initially proposed in April 2007 by Matt Lyons, the Student Government Association's Speaker of the Legislature. It was placed on the 2007 SGA Elections Ballot, where 91 percent of the student body said they would be in favor of the additional fee.

Both Lyons and SGA Senior Vice President Joanna Calabrese said the act's passage is a true testament to how committed students are on the issue of clean energy.

"I think this is a huge statement about the students," Lyons said. "They showed what kind of impact they can make on a sustainable campus for the future."

"It's just one example of how supportive students are of clean energy and green issues," Calabrese added. "Students showed they are willing to do more than just talk about a sustainable future. They are willing to pay to make it happen."

The act calls for a $4 student fee that would be separate from the fuel and utilities fee students already pay. This committee, which was comprised of students and campus officials, chose to approve the $4 fee with the caveat that it would review it each year and decide whether it needs to be raised, with the price capping at $12 in four years, Lyons said.

With the additional fee, the university "could potentially purchase 100 percent of student consumption in clean, renewable energy," according to the language of the act. Though the price of renewable energy credits has risen since the act was originally written, Lyons remains optimistic.

"There is certainly no guarantee that the fee will be able to purchase 100 percent consumption," Lyons said. "But I think it is an important step in the right direction for the campus to be making."

According to the act, the Environmental Protection Agency publishes a list of the top College and University Partners in the Green Power Partnership and this university has never been on the list, a statistic that Lyons said he hopes will change with this new act.

"No question, I hope to make the list. I think it would be a great statement by our campus," Lyons said. "We have made a lot of changes in sustainability for the future and also for the present. If we combine those two, I think we have a great shot of getting on the list in the future."

The fee will not be put into place until 2010. But Ali Adler, the campaign director of Clean Energy for UMD and a former Diamondback columnist, thinks the act will have an immediate impact for the university as well.

And though Calabrese, a junior environmental policy major, will not be enrolled long enough to see the residual effects of the act on the sustainability of the campus, she said her support of the initiative was never about her own personal gain.

"To say that I was instrumental in creating something that will improve the sustainability of this campus in the future makes it worth it," Calabrese said.

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