The Student Fee Board will meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 28 in 233A HUB to vote on its fee level recommendation for the 2018-2019 school year. Anyone is welcome to attend the meeting, as it’s open to the public.

Last year, the Fee Board approved or denied requests on a rolling basis and all deliberations occurred during public meetings. The first cycle of the Board’s existence determined the 2017-2018 student fee after the Board replaced the likes of the Student Activities Fee Board and the Facilities Fee Board.

This year, the Fee Board is waiting for its final meeting to vote on the fee level, and has not approved any allocations to this point. Over the past few months, the Fee Board has heard allocation requests from various administrative units on campus. Deliberation between members of the Board has occurred during closed meetings in the last few weeks.

The fee level the Student Fee Board votes on Wednesday will then be recommended to the Board of Trustees, which holds final approval over tuition and student fees. The recommendation will be considered at the Board of Trustees meeting in July.

The 2017-2018 student fee was set at $258 per semester, a $38 increase from the previous year. The vast increase can be blamed mostly on a significant increase to the Campus Recreation allocation, which made fitness memberships free for all students. Because of the closed deliberation meetings, it’s unclear at this time whether we can expect another increase this time around.