Board eliminates facilities fee

Students will likely not have to pay a proposed $30 for classroom improvements after a committee voted down the fee last week, reversing an earlier recommendation.

The teaching facilities fee, which would have paid for improvements such as new paint and ceiling tiles, would have gone into effect next year. The committee first passed the fee at a Sept. 17 meeting after Student Government Association President Steve Glickman — who said he opposed the fee — left early after what the committee's chair called a "misunderstanding." The reversal was made during a closed meeting, and students said they were told to keep parts of the meeting confidential.

The fee was one of three controversial new fees passed at the mid-September meeting to fund programs normally paid for using tuition dollars and state appropriations. The committee opted not to reconsider the other two new fees, which total $135. As a result, mandatory student fees may increase by nearly $200 next year after climbing just $84.50 over the past two years.

Those who opposed the additional fees said the increase would put an extra burden on cash-strapped students and that it is inappropriate to fund the programs through student fees. Glickman, who also missed votes on the other two fees at the first meeting, said he was unhappy they were not reconsidered.

"If I were [Gov. Martin] O'Malley's office, I'd be up in arms. ... This is exactly what he was trying to prevent [with a tuition freeze]," Glickman said.

There was an unsuccessful motion to reconsider at least one other fee, said SGA Senior Vice President and committee member Elliott Morris, but he did not think there would have been enough backing to defeat the fee.

The 13-person Committee for the Review of Student Fees tied on the teaching facilities fee when it first considered it weeks ago, and Vice President of Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie, the committee's chair, broke the tie in favor of the fee. All five students present at the meeting opposed the fee, but SGA President Steve Glickman had already left to catch a flight home to Buffalo, N.Y., for Rosh Hashanah.

Owing to her inexperience chairing the committee, Wylie said she had given Glickman the impression the meeting would end at 7:30 p.m. and be continued another day. Instead the meeting lasted until after 9 p.m., during which time the committee passed the new fees.
Administrators decided to reconvene the meeting to allow everyone to voice their opinions, Wylie said last month.

Other new fees would require students to pay $100 to fund the library's collections budget and to build a study area in McKeldin Library and $35 to allow administrators to reduce the amount of tuition money used to pay for the Health Center.

Graduate Student Government President Anu Kothari, a committee member, said she was pleased the teaching facilities fee was defeated but frustrated with what she considered to be the poor record keeping and lack of transparency associated with the process. The committee's deliberations are closed to the public.

"It's fine if they would just come out and say these meetings are not meant to be transparent, so they're not going to be transparent, so you shouldn't expect transparency," she said. "The honest truth is they're not transparent."

Morris said students should be able to observe the process, if not in person then through a transcript or recording.

"Students have a right to be involved in the way the decisions that affect their education are made," he said.

The committee is an advisory body. The final approval of student fees comes from the Board of Regents, a 17-member panel of gubernatorial appointees who oversee the university system.

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