After tabling a motion Friday to recommend a $200-per-year expansion of the student activity fee, Gail Hurley said yesterday she doesn't know when, if at all, she would recommend the fee.
Hurley, the interim vice president for Student Affairs, met continued opposition from University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) President Gavin Keirans at Friday's Student Activity Fee Board meeting. The board was slated to decide whether or not to recommend the fee but arrived at no definitive decision Friday.
Keirans (sophomore-business administration) said he is "adamantly" opposed to the new fee, adding that the administration had not given students enough information or time to make a decision on the fee.
Hurley said Keirans' comments made her "a little bit defensive."
The new portion of the fee would be set aside for the upkeep, expansion and construction of facilities that are not classroom, laboratory or library space.
Hurley said she hadn't put forth any concrete plans regarding what projects the fee would fund or who would control the fee's allocation because she wanted a "partnership" with students.
"One of the criticisms I heard very early on about Student Affairs was that we were dictating everything that happened," she said. "We've not put these on the table in great detail because we're trying to capitalize on this idea of a partnership."
The original plan was to have a recommendation for Penn State President Graham Spanier before the May 16 Board of Trustees meeting at University Park.
Hurley said there's no guarantee the board will convene again to make a decision before May 16.
UPUA passed a resolution Thursday night opposing the fee; however, the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) passed a resolution Saturday pledging support for it.
While Keirans said students hadn't been presented with enough information about the fee, some board members contended that other student governments have been discussing the fee since it was presented to the board Feb. 29.
"When I look at what CCSG did, from the minute we had that presentation, there was a lot of conversation," Hurley said. "UPUA took a different route."
She added that if the fee were implemented, a connector between the HUB-Robeson Center and the White Building would most likely be the first project considered.
CCSG Student Activity Fee Board Representative Nick Borsuk said some students "have come out in roaring support of this fee," regardless of UPUA's rejection of it.
Still, Borsuk (sophomore-history) said the fee "should not be added to students' accounts unless there is a plan for that fee."
CCSG's resolution states that its endorsement of the fee is "conditional upon the receipt of an explicit plan" explaining how the fee will be implemented.
Hurley said the board needs to "gather its thoughts" and take the next three weeks before the end of the spring semester to arrive at a decision on the fee. However, she stressed that UPUA needs to be open to reconsidering the fee.
"I'm not willing to put in three weeks worth of time if there's going to be a close-minded attitude," she said. "If there's not an openness to consider it, I'm not sure there's something we can partner on that would get us to a different place."
Keirans said he would act in accordance with the UPUA general assembly if representatives voted for the fee, but he said, "It's really going to take a lot to sell the assembly."
"It's supposed to be a fee for students," he added, "and if students are against it, why would we move forward?"
