STUDENT BODY TREASURER KYLE LEWANDOWSKI led a town hall meeting Tuesday night to discuss student fees. Photo: Sarah Andrews

At Tuesday’s Student Activity Fee town hall meeting, the Student Senate Fees Allocation Committee (SFAC) addressed the fiscal future of the 2010-2011 academic year.

Student Body Treasurer Kyle Lewandowski and Student Body Auditor Cory Vancura led the meeting. It was held at 9 p.m. in Bulldog Theater, allowing for an open student forum.

“This is something many stu­dents may not know much infor­mation about,” Lewandowski said. “We are trying to fix that.”

The presentation was designed to explain how the annual SFAC baseline budget is allocated, and how funds are distributed to the 22 annually funded campus organiza­tions.

The baseline budget for Sen­ate is set each fiscal year on the estimated total student enrollment, which is calculated by the Office of Business and Finance.

This year’s budget was approxi­mately $450,000. Of this money, 62 percent went toward annually budgeted organizations, 11 percent to the Student Development fund

and 27 percent to finance the Board of Student Communications, which funds all campus pub­lications.

“We have seen a huge amount of growth in our baseline,” Vancura said. “Based on the en­rollment projection for the next upcoming year, we may see a baseline of up to $460,000.”

Added into each student’s tuition is a student activity fee, which contributes to the baseline budget. Prior to 2001, the fee was $45 per se­mester. For this academic year, the fee was raised to $66 per semester. Included in this fee is a $12 charge for the Campus Readership Program that supplies free access to local and national newspapers around campus.

Lewandowski feels Drake’s student activity fee is relatively low when compared to the $452 fee charged by Iowa State University and the $320 fee at Coe College.

Drake expects to see a decrease in enroll­ment beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, which would decrease the pool of funds that Senate has to distribute, Vancura said.

However, SFAC does not see a justification for raising the student activity fee for the 2010-2011 academic year.

“SFAC will need to thoroughly evaluate the past spending on organizations, including un­spent funds to enhance our decision making,” Vancura said. “Honestly, I think this is a good year to look at the funds we dish out and start asking some tough questions.”

At the Senate meeting Thursday, SFAC will propose that the student activity fee remain the same.

SFAC will also propose that Senate earmark $15,000 from the Senate Reserve Fund to ex­clusively offset any shortages in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

“Our proposal ensures that organizations will maintain their overall current level of financial support and that the Senate Reserve Funds are used for student activities,” Lewandowski said.

If Senate rejects the proposal and decides to increase the student activity fee, the Board of Trustees will look over the decision at their an­nual meeting in January. The board can only raise the fee if the Senate requests it.

“That would indicate that the Senate would like an increase in tuition,” Lewandowski said. “If this happens, we will go back and see what increase the Senate finds desirable.”

Although first-year Nate Bleadorn is not en­tirely sure if he supports SFAC’s proposal, he said he appreciated the effort put into the meet­ing.

“Their proposal is definitely well-thought-out,” Bleadorn said. “The meeting was ben­eficial in answering a number of student ques­tions.”