Correction Appended
On Wednesday night, the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska Senate heard from student fee users the Daily Nebraskan, the Dailyer Nebraskan, representatives for the Lied Center ticket discounts and the University Program Council. The Senate voted on 2009-2010 budget requests for the organizations, which the Committee for Fee Allocation had already recommended.
Students encircled the senators' table: a high turnout despite ASUN's neglect to post the meeting agenda and appropriations bills online prior to the meeting, as required by its bylaws.
The money for the requests comes from fees that every University of Nebraska-Lincoln student pays, unless a student asks for a refund.
Despite a lengthy discussion on whether student fees should cover the Dailyer Nebraskan's total printing and distribution costs for one year, all budget requests passed.
Students currently pay a fee of $9.71 in fees supporting ASUN, which, should UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman approve the Senate's recommendation, will increase to $9.95. The total allocation toward ASUN the Senate recommended Wednesday was $440,592.
A fee hike of $365 would finance executive reimbursements for top ASUN members, providing meal stipends, smart phone capabilities and parking passes for up to $40 per executive per month.
CFA sub-committee members Brock A. Smith, a sophomore economics major, and Tony Roubal, a senior animal science major, noted in their report a need for caution concerning the benefits.
"If you get parking passes, it's important to provide receipts. If you eat lunch on campus, it's important to provide an ASUN-centered reason and a list of the people you eat with," their report reads in part.
The Daily Nebraskan saw a request of $115,686 approved: $12,000 of those dollars would go to cover full printing and distribution costs for the Dailyer Nebraskan. The separate publications are ailing under a sagging economy and lack of advertisement revenue.
"We're on track to lose $250,000 this year," said Eric Hamilton, chairman of the UNL Publications Board, describing roughly $100,000 lost in the stock market and another $150,000 in the red for operating costs.
DN General Manager Dan Shattil compared the DN's market loses to those experienced by the University of Nebraska Foundation. Hilary Stohs-Krause, a senior news-editorial and Spanish major and editor-in-chief of the DN, explained that many newspapers are suffering from the economic downturn and loss of advertising dollars.
Senators worried that providing the Dailyer's full printing and distribution costs would "set a precedent" they were uncomfortable with, for one, discouraging the publication from supplying its own funds through advertising.
In the end, a spirit of support for campus publications shone through.
Amanda Crook, a junior political science major and senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, remembered being "very critical" of past DN budget requests, but said she's "come around" to the publication's cause.
"I see great management, I see great leadership... I see nothing but good things (from supporting the DN financially)," she said.
Lauren Garcia, a junior advertising major and senator for the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, said she's "not a proponent" of the publication, but cutting back on financial support for the DN isn't the best way to help it improve, she said.
The fee allocation for the Daily Nebraskan that the Senate voted to recommend is an increase of $39,043 from 2008-2009.
The Lied Center student fee, as passed, would decrease by $8,500. The University Program Council's budget request is staying relatively the same at $159,639.
Correction: This story originally misstated the amount of fees per student that ASUN currently gets and that was approved for next year. The original version also misstated the increase in fees that would go toward ASUN executive reimbursements.
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