Student leaders asked Columbus decision-makers Friday not to approve or deny Ohio University's request for a new $22 quarterly fee until students can vote on the topic.
Pete Wickman, president of Graduate Student Senate, and Robert Leary, Student Senate treasurer, faxed a letter to the state's highest education official Friday afternoon, urging him not to approve or deny the university's request for the new fee until students vote. Both senates voted last week to add referendums to their May 14 election ballots, asking whether students want to pay the fee.
These ballot initiatives would give the students of Ohio University an opportunity to openly and publicly debate the proposed campuswide fee
which would be necessary to pay for the debt service reads the letter.
But Student Senate President Michael Adeyanju refused to sign the letter, instead proposing a version that didn't ask the state to delay a decision on the fee - essentially neutering the letter. Adeyanju said he would rather the letter be informative than make a request and couldn't sign the letter as it existed.
The proposed $22 quarterly fee would pay for half of a $40 million project to upgrade the university's computer network and buy a new student records system. Students would begin paying the fee in September, more than a year before the upgrades take effect.
A statewide tuition freeze bars the university from charging the fee without special permission from Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Board of Regents, which oversees Ohio's public universities.
OU President Roderick McDavis, speaking at a meeting with the university's Board of Trustees on Thursday, said he expects Fingerhut to approve or reject the fee in days. Any delay could disrupt the university's plan to borrow the money on May 13, the day before students vote.
The Regents ask universities to submit a student show of support when proposing a new fee. OU sent a letter from Adeyanju earlier this month, which only said that administrators explained the fee to students.
A student vote would be a better measure of student opinion, said Leary, who sponsored the resolution calling for a vote. He also criticized Adeyanju for not signing the letter.
I think that by not signing it he was undermining my resolution Leary said.
Student Trustee Chauncey Jackson said he doesn't think Fingerhut should wait until students vote.
This needs to get done. I'm not sure what is to be gained by waiting
Jackson said. I've asked Pete that. I've asked Mike that.
Without the new student records system, Jackson said, the university would be forced to abandon the computerized services that allow students to register for classes, check grades and submit assignments online.
Administrators told student leaders and trustees about the proposed fee in September, said Jackson, adding he's not sure why students waited so long to question the fee.
The Board of Regents and Fingerhut did not respond to numerous e-mails, messages and voicemails seeking comment for this article.
PDF of OU's request for permission to institute a new student fee
PDF of the letter Wickman and Leary sent to Eric Fingerhut and Adeyanju's revisions
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Dave Hendricks
