The Board of Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning rejected the Mississippi State University Student Association’s student activity fee proposal earlier this summer.
During its regular June 19 meeting, the board rejected the proposal by a 6-4 vote, with board member Virginia Shanteau Newton absent and Bettye Neely abstaining.
L. Stacy Davidson Jr., Bryce Griffis, Carl Nicholson Jr. and Scott Ross voted in favor of the fee, while Thomas Colbert, William Crawford, Ricki Garrett, Roy Klumb, D.E. Magee Jr. and Amy Whitten voted against it.
Proceeds from the proposed $6.67 per hour activity fee would have been used for several strictly outlined projects directly affecting students. These included renovating Colvard Student Union, improving campus concerts and events and helping alleviate traffic and parking problems.
MSU students voted on the fee during SA elections last April, with 72 percent voting in favor of the fee.
Board member Ricki Garrett, one of the six board members who voted against the fee, said she felt it would have gone against the board’s commitment not to increase tuition.
“We made a commitment back in the spring that we were not going to increase tuition at the university because the Legislature had funded higher education early in the session and had given us some bridge money to help overcome some of the cuts in higher education,” Garrett said. “Many of us on the board considered this a tuition increase. It affected every student on campus.
“We also had concerns because it bound future Mississippi State students to this future increase, and they had not been given an opportunity to vote on it,” she added.
Board member Scott Ross, who voted in support of the proposal, said he does not see the proposed fee as a tuition increase.
“As a practical matter, a lot of people don’t differentiate between tuition and fees,” Ross said. “But a portion of the current tuition goes to any number of fees.”
“With a general tuition increase, barring some parameters set by the board, the university president could expend that money in any way he chooses. The proposed student fee was not subject to being changed by the administration – this one or the next,” Ross said.
Garrett also said those not in support of the bill had concerns that it set a bad precedent.
“Anytime you look at a big policy issue like tuition, you ought to look at it in terms of all of the universities rather than a proposal given at the last minute by one institution,” Garrett said. “Our biggest concern was dealing with an issue as important and wide-ranging as tuition based on what the students at one university said they wanted.”
Ross, again, differed in his view of the issue:
“I thought that since it was initiated by the students, strongly supported by the students through a referendum and was geared toward enhancing campus for students, that the board should go along with it. This was not initiated by the administration. This was the result of students surveying to determine what the desires of the student population were, and I thought it made a lot of sense.
“I was proud of the student leaders for even bringing it forward,” Ross added.
Student Association President Josh Blades said he was disappointed with the outcome of the vote.
“Anytime you have 72 percent of the students vote on an issue, that should send a pretty big signal to the board,” Blades said. “The SA did a great deal of research on student fees. We found that the vast majority of universities outside of Mississippi have some sort of student fees.”
Blades continued to say that student fees helped many students enjoy an improved campus life at many universities, citing such things as better concerts, speakers, transportation and parking.
“Currently, the money for student activities comes out of the same budget as faculty salaries and academic programs,” Blades said. “We as students went before the board and said we were willing to take part of the burden of student activities on our backs so we could improve student life without detracting from our university’s academic quality. But the idea was shot down.”
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