Fee hike proposal en route to Angel

Students may see a $7 raise in student fees if recommendations made by the President's Advisory Committee are approved.

The committee met Thursday to make recommendations on requests made by groups that the fees help support.

The organizations' total requests came to almost $36. But because the committee was restricted to only a 3.25 percent increase under Senate Bill 547, the fee hike was kept to about one-fifth of that amount.

Committee member Heather Richardson said the Athletic Department requested an amount more than three times what the committee could approve overall.

Athletic Director Lance West proposed a $28 increase, most of which would go to help fund women's sports. The committee, however, approved only a $2 raise.

"This committee only makes recommendations," said Adrian Cain, chairman of the committee for the fiscal year 1999-2000. "We heard the proposals from the organizations last semester, did our homework and now our job is to submit these recommendations to the president."

The committee also recommended a $2 increase for the MU Marching Band, which had requested a $2.35 increase.

Band director Baruch White-head said most of this money will go toward scholarships for students participating in the marching band.

Marshall Emergency Medical Services was the only organization not recommended to receive any student funds.

MU-EMS was a new applicant to the student fees committee and requested they receive 50 cents of the student fees per semester.

Committee member Carol Perry said turning this down would not hurt the students because the trend on campus was to call Cabell County EMS when a medical emergency arose.

Herb Karlett, vice president for finance, said that this was too costly a function to place its financial burdens on student fees.

"The MU-EMS program is something that should be decided by the university," Karlett said. "It is either something that needs to be funded largely by the university or contracted out."

Cain said, "I think that the committee did a good job in taking into consideration the needs of these organizations with respect to student's concerns. After all, it is the student's money that we are talking about here."

The recommendations next go to President Dan Angel for his consideration as part of the overall university budge he submits to the University of West Virginia System Board of Trustees. Angel will probably make a decision in late February, Cain said.