In an emergency session last night, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) passed a resolution rejecting a proposed $200-per-year expansion of the student activity fee.
During the meeting, UPUA members spoke overwhelmingly against the proposed expansion.
"This is taxation without representation," UPUA member Andrew Karasik said last night. "Taxation without representation is tyranny."
The Student Activity Fee Board -- which includes UPUA President Gavin Keirans -- will decide today at a public meeting whether or not to recommend the new expansion to university President Graham Spanier.
The proposed funds would pay for the upkeep, expansion and construction of facilities that are not classroom, library or laboratory space.
The board, composed of student leaders, faculty members and administrators, advises university President Graham Spanier on setting the price of the student activity fee -- which is already set to increase from $68 to $74 per semester next year.
"The UPUA ... is firmly against the implementation of the Facilities Fee in its current form. We cannot support the implementation of any tax on students without well-defined plan," the resolution passed last night reads.
Keirans said he will represent the UPUA's opinion at today's board meeting --the first step in the fee's potential implementation.
If the board decides to recommend the fee -- which could garner between $7.5 million and $8 million in funding -- the Board of Trustees could approve the fee by its May 16 meeting.
The resolution passed last night contends that the proposed expansion violates policy on the student activity fee, which, according to the resolution, "cannot be used to retire the long-term debt on major construction projects."
The resolution also calls for increased student control over the proposed fee, including a UPUA presidential commission that will decide where the money is spent and the option to waive or change the fee amount at any time.
Vice President for Housing, Food Services and Residence Life Stan Latta said last week that while the new funds are not currently intended for any specific project, Student Affairs has "some ideas based on comments and recommendations."
The ideas include expanding the HUB-Robeson Center to connect with the White Building, upgrading the natatorium and creating new playing fields.
Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Gail Hurley, who spoke at last night's UPUA meeting, said she welcomed student input on the fee.
"We didn't want to come forward and say, 'Here are these projects, we're going to do them,' " she said. "We wanted a partnership."
Hurley added that if the fee is approved, a facilities fee advisory board including students will be created.
She said she and Latta have been meeting with student leaders since late January to speak about the new funds.
Latta said if implemented, the fee is not expected to increase beyond annual adjustments for inflation "in the foreseeable future."
Student reaction to the fee has been mixed.
"I think it's for a good reason, to make our campus look better," Adriana Coletta (senior-nutrition) said.
Nikki Bracy (sophomore-theatre) said the university has "more than enough money for construction."
"I feel like, as students, we get charged for stuff that seems just really extraneous for me ... I don't see why we'd have to pay an additional $200," she said.
Despite UPUA's rejection of the fee, Hurley said the organization is "one part of the board."
"There are other members there," she said. "We're looking for a dialogue."
--Collegian staff writer Alex Weisler contributed to this report.
