A five-year strategic plan from 2025-2030 was announced at the Students’ Association meeting held on February 12, 2024. Along with a couple of other advantages, the plan aims to benefit the student workers by leading to a potential increase in the remuneration for their service.
The SA Senate acts as a representative figure of the students of South Dakota State University to vocalize their opinions and demands to the university administration and South Dakota Board of Regents. Since the SA is responsible for the allocation of student fee funds, the committee drafts a strategic plan for the Genderal Activity Fee (GAF) of South Dakota State University after every five years.
The GAF deals with funds that act as the backbone of student experiences related to co-curricular activities and organizations. It is a mandatory fee charged on all on-campus credit hours to support the smooth functioning of student organizations, athletics, the Miller Wellness Center, the Student Union.
The current GAF paid by students is $50.85 per credit. This amount is not enough to support an increase in the wage rate of student workers. With this in consideration, the student senate voted in favor of increasing the GAF over the coming years in several phases.
According to the proposed plan, the total reserve for the fiscal year of 2025 funded by the GAF is expected to be $12,204,000.00. An additional $0.10 will be allocated for the Student Union operations with $0.09 for AV fund and $0.25 for student wages by the fiscal year of 2026. The total reserve for the same year would increase to $12,033,600.00.
With the additional $0.25 going into the funds for student employee wages, the workers at food service stations and event management can expect a raise by next year. The proposed plan does not mention any changes in the funds allocated for the Wellness Center. Instead, the wellness services work group proposed to remove the $6.00 credit for the YOU@STATE platform. The Wellness GAF replacement still remains $0.41, the same as the previous strategic plan. However, the total increase in GAF aims to improve the overall situation of student wages.
The initial rate of pay per hour for student employees is approximately $12.00. When inquired about student employee wages, one employee who works at the Student Union said,“I have been working as a part-time food service worker for four years now and I got a raise of $1 on my third year here.”
Although GAF increases are rather difficult to be approved by the South Dakota Board of Regents, the SA Senate proposed this policy to pave the path for a better remuneration of student workers.