Campus Council held its first meeting of the year Thursday night, with 24 members of the council and two members of the University's staff in attendance.
The agenda for the meeting included approval of the budget for the 2008-2009 school year and votes on two resolutions concerning whether or not students should pay for cable service and extra living time spent on Central Campus in the interim between the end of exams and graduation.
The council unanimously approved a $133,637.20 budget and moved not to raise the programming and residential fee this year, with the understanding that next year's council will have to do so to account for a more than $10,000 projected revenue decrease between this year and next.
"It is pretty clear that the next Campus Council is going to have to raise the fee," said Campus Council President Molly Bierman, a senior.
The council also considered a motion to ask Residence Living and Housing Services to quit charging seniors who live on Central an additional $140 to $170 for the time they use their apartment between final exams and commencement.
"The idea behind the fee is that since Central Campus is used for Summer Session, we need to move people out of the apartments to clean them as soon as possible," said Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residential life.
Seniors who live on West Campus do not have to pay the additional fee, and proponents of the resolution said it is not fair for some seniors to incur extra charges while others do not.
"Would you ever expect to live somewhere for free? You pay for the amount of time you live here," said Jen Frank, assistant director of accommodations at RLHS.
After approximately 20 minutes of discussion, the council tabled the resolution so revisions could be made.
Keeping with the issue of fairness, the council passed a resolution asking RLHS to end its practice of not providing cable for televisions in selective living group commons rooms.
"We believed that this was an issue of equality that was so important that we paid for cable for three of the SLGs," Bierman said.
Currently, RHLS will provide cable at no charge to any common room with a television, except those in common rooms owned by SLGs.
"If they're not going to provide the cable, then people who live in these groups should not have to pay the fee and can use the money to buy the cable themselves," said Kevin Geck, a sophomore representative and member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.
Campus Council has struggled in recent years to show they are an active and important part of student life. Efforts to increase visibility include the addition of a public relations chair, re-designed Web site and logo and an increased effort to help students understand how Campus Council fits into student governance.
"We are the only body that does both programming and policy. DUU only does programing, DSG only does policy, but we do both," said Hope Lu, a senior and programming chair.
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