Steering committee amends proposed GAF plan

Steering+committee+amends+proposed+GAF+plan

Brianna Schreurs, Editor-in-Chief

The General Activity Fee (GAF) rough draft underwent two amendments during the steering committee’s final meeting on Jan. 22.

The main change had to do with an amendment Vice President Spencer Harwood proposed concerning money allocated to athletics.

He amended the plan so Frost Arena renovations and athletic operational costs would both receive $3 over the course of two years.

In the first year, GAF would increase $3 per credit hour for Frost renovations, and $2.49 per credit hour would be redirected from the Student Union’s Maintenence and Repair fund to athletics operations. In year two, athletics operations will receive a $0.51 per credit hour increase.

This amendment decreases the original second-year allocation of $2.47, which would have taken care of the athletic deficit in its entirety, to $0.51, which would leave the athletics department with a $500,000 deficit.

As of right now, SA is waiting on a response from athletics to see if this feasible, Harwood said.

“I felt based off of the survey results as well as trying to keep the overall increase for students down, (the amendment) felt fair.” Harwood said.”$3 and $3 made sense to me.”

Read more about the athletic deficit and backlash here. 

The second change is simple, instead of the transportation fees kicking in during 2021, it’ll begin in 2020 and continue it to 2021. There’s no change to the dollar amount proposed in the first draft.

The GAF strategic plan isn’t completely set. More changes could occur before the final GAF strategic plan is approved at the 7 p.m. Jan. 28 Students’ Association meeting in the Lewis and Clark room in the Student Union.

At 12-1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24 on the Market Stage in The Union, SA is having a town hall meeting to answer any public questions about GAF. The Collegian will livestream it on Facebook.