The Student Activity Fee will increase after a majority of students voted for a hike but not the specific increase.

Assistant Comptroller Maggie Misztal, a freshman finance, marketing and public relations major, announced that the fee would be increased by $25 during the Student Association weekly meeting Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium.

The results of the online referendum showed that most students voted for an increase of zero dollars. The fee will increase by $25, however, because the votes were tallied by using the lowest dollar amount that would constitute a majority, said SA President Andrew Thomson.

Thomson said SA drew a line under each dollar amount and tallied the votes, and wherever the line was immediately below a result that yielded a majority, that level was used.

The exact wording of the question as it appeared on the SA Web site was ‘I support a Student Activity Fee increase of at the most’ and then a listing of the options for the increase that included zero, $25, $50, $75, $100, $150 and $200.

Thomson said the wording ‘of at most’ in the question suggested that when a student voted for an increase they would also be voting for a lesser increase than what they thought.

SA has no initial plans for the increased funds they will begin receiving next semester but are waiting for organizations to come to them with funding requests, Thomson said.

‘We are not disappointed at all with the increase,’ he said. ‘We are very happy with a $25 increase.’

There were several discussions about the best way to run the election, but the method that was chosen was thought to be more fair, Thomson said

Chris Doherty, a sophomore environmental, forest biology major in the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, said he voted for the lowest increase of $25 as it was but still thought the question was somewhat misleading.

‘If I had known that’s exactly what it meant, I may have thought more and voted differently,’ he said.

[b]In other SA news:[/b]SA passed a bill to research the student government associations of several other colleges and universities to see how their systems are run. The bill, proposed by Thomson, is meant only to gather information, he said.

It has been about five years since SA looked into the procedures of others in comparison to its own, and this research will allow SA to see where it stands in relationship to other universities, Thomson said.

– SA passed a bill proposed by assembly member and junior marketing major Dominick Chillemi to create an executive greek liaison. The liaison will work to improve communication between the greek community and SA, and will report to the SA president.

‘The position is not to further greeks from campus but to bring them closer,’ Chillemi said. ‘Greeks are an important part of this campus.’

Published on February 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm