Vice President for Student Affairs Kent Smith has shot down a proposal that would charge Ohio University students living on campus $30 per guest during spring fest weekends.
Smith rejected two proposals from Residential Housing yesterday — one that would have implemented the new fee for this spring’s fests and another that would have increased the Halloween guest fee from $25 to $30.
“I just don’t feel like there has been enough broad student involvement,” Smith said, adding that he will create a task force to further explore the possible fee increases.
“This is an issue that students feel strongly about and that will potentially impact thousands of students,” Smith said.
Student Senate President Jesse Neader praised Smith’s decision.
“Certainly, it’s a conversation where student involvement is important,” Neader said, adding that many students are more worried about the pending OU budget cuts and haven’t had time to weigh the pros and cons of fest fees.
“The last thing we should do is rush a decision and then have to go back and change it,” he added.
Executive Director of Residential Housing Christine Sheets and an eight-member focus group proposed the Halloween fee increase and the new fest fee. The group consisted of five Residential Housing employees and three students.
The group proposed that students be charged for out-of-town guests for this spring’s High, Ark, Palmer Place, Palmer, Oak, Mill and 8Fest weekends, which fall on all but one weekend between April 22 and May 20.
The new task force will be charged with further gauging student opinion as well as the possible benefits of a fest fee. However, Smith said any fee increases recommended by the task force would not take effect until Spring 2012 at the earliest.
Fee money would be used for on-campus educational programs and to cover the cost of damage done by the influx of visitors, Sheets said last week in an interview with The Post.
Smith said one major concern of his is that Halloween and the spring fests be seen as separate events and not clumped together. While the annual Halloween block party is a city-sanctioned event, the spring fests are completely student-organized.
But Smith said OU’s primary concern in regards to both the fests and the Halloween block party is student safety.
“College is partially about having fun,” Smith said. “We want students to have fun, but we want them to have fun in low-risk ways.”
wl372808@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCampus
