RUSA to hold referendum on raising student fee
The Rutgers University Student Assembly recently announced an upcoming referendum about increasing the student fee on the term bill for undergraduate students, according to a press release by the Assembly.
In the event of failure to raise the student fee, the Assembly calculated a projected 42 percent decrease in student organization funding after using up funds accumulated during the pandemic.
The student fee currently sits at $1,474, of which the Assembly receives $35.50, according to an Instagram post by the Assembly. Members of the Assembly say it has not kept up with inflationary costs, as the Assembly's share has gone unchanged since 2008.
CPI Inflation Calculator reports that the U.S. dollar in 2024 can buy approximately 68 percent of what it could in 2008. More concretely, the Assembly posted that $35.50 of goods and services in 2008 would be worth approximately $53 now.
Furthermore, for students not in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Assembly directs most of the student fee toward a school's governing association, meaning the Allocations Board receives $28.50 from a School of Arts and Sciences student and $5.70 from any other student.
The University has added approximately 50 more clubs to its roster in the past year — growing from 301 to 349 between the last two fall semesters. They have asked the Assembly's Allocations Board for approximately $1.5 million in funding, yet the Board only had approximately $500,000 at its disposal.
"It is unfortunate that we must have these discussions, as this issue should have been addressed during the University's restructuring," Assembly President Jack Ramirez, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, said in the release.
But Ramirez expressed a positive outlook toward resolving the issue with University and Assembly executives, asking student leaders to remain flexible.
Ish Sohal, a School of Arts and Sciences senior and co-president of the Asian Student Council, said she does not look forward to the potential student fee increase but sees the Assembly's reasoning.
"It's very difficult for clubs to operate because of budget limitations, but there's so many clubs now that it's hard to fund them," she said. "It's rough out here."
The exact amount of the increase will be announced closer to the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, but the referendum requires a majority affirmative vote from at least 10 percent of Rutgers—New Brunswick undergraduate students in order to pass, the Assembly's release read. Dates and conditions of voting are to be determined.
