The Student Activities Board (SAB) has approved conducting a referendum asking students to vote on restructuring the student fee to boost student programs, activities and campus events.
As a member of the SAB, we believe it is necessary to pass this referendum to support other organizations, including The Clarion Newspaper, to keep operating at full capacity for the student body.
What is the Student Activity Referendum?
The SAB will hold a referendum on Nov. 13-19 to set the student activity fee at a flat rate of $12.30 per credit, with the ability of SAB to increase it by up to 3% each year, as deemed necessary due to the pace of inflation.
The fee does not necessarily increase yearly, and it must be voted on by the SAB for any increase to occur.
The current fee is calculated as 6.5% of the per-credit tuition rate. Based on the different tuition rate, Occupational Program classes currently cost $9.55 per credit, Liberal Arts Transfer classes cost $12.30 per credit and courses offered at Regional Campuses cost $3.25 per credit.
This Referendum proposes both the Occupational/Vocational and Liberal Arts so that they pay the same amount per credit for student activities instead of different amounts for students in various programs. However, the Regional Campuses will continue to pay $3.25 pre credit because of the limited access to resources that are traditionally focused on the main Truax and Madison-area campuses.
Why is the referendum needed?
The amount requested during last spring’s budget process was $200,000 more than was able to be funded this year, which resulted in all organizations needing to make decisions about what to cut in programming or student employment coming into this year. This resulted in a 14.9% reduction in organizational budgets and many clubs have undergone budget reductions set last spring by at least 13%.
Why isn’t the fee able to support existing needs?
In the past, lower enrollments due to COVID and increased remote options for online and commuter students, as well as an ongoing tuition freeze limited funding.
As an example, full-time student enrollments (FTEs) in recent years such as 2022 (7,176 FTEs) have overall declined 15% from 2019 pre-COVID levels of enrollment (8,486 FTEs), which resulted in a decrease in Student Activity Fees that are directly tied to tuition rates.
Since at least 2007, the Occupational Fee and Transfer Fee have been mismatched in tuitions and therefore fees between the two types of students.
What benefits will the referendum provide?
The amount of revenue generated by the Student Activity Fee is no longer enough to support the clubs, organizations, athletic teams and events that this fee has funded for decades. The cost of food, travel, supplies and competitive wages has increased significantly in recent years, affecting all the student groups and activities.
Entering the 2023-2024 academic year, student groups were forced to decide about what to eliminate to balance the budget. Some of those cuts include:
• Athletics cut competitions from their competition schedule for multiple teams.
• The Intercultural Exchange cut hours for student employees, limiting their hours each week.
• United Common Ground could not fund its entire leadership team and eliminated one student position.
• Student Senate reduced their budget for food at events, travel to a national advocacy conference and decreased the Senate President’s hours.
• The national travel budget for clubs and organizations was cut, while the funding from last year needed to be more to cover the cost of two clubs traveling to national competitions.
• The Volunteer Center reduced its travel budget, offering local alternative break options instead of traveling to farther locations. They also cut the funding for bringing speakers to campus.
If the referendum passes, we can restore and strengthen the students’ activities to include:
• Funding over 100 student employees annually at a wage of $15 per hour.
• Supporting our 50 clubs with more the 2,000 members.
• Sponsoring nine Division II intercollegiate athletic teams, with nearly 200 student athletes.
• Funding student-led music ensembles and theater productions, with free performances for students.
• Supplies for the Early Learning Campus, Madison College’s on-campus childcare center.
• Supporting the continued publishing of the student-run Clarion newsletter and newspaper, Clarion radio and Yahara Journal literary magazine.
As members of a student organization that supports WolfPack students, we need this funding to allow our mission of telling the stories of students who are changing their lives at Madison College.
We highlight club students who are driven to build leadership skills, uphold our school’s athletics teams and elevate ideas of social justice. We practice traditional grassroots journalism, so we can share the stories that matter most to you, our readers and Wolf Pack students.
Vote YES on Nov. 13 on the Student Activities Referendum.