Some University of Missouri student leaders are seeking to adopt policies that would make students more accountable for fees they vote to fund new campus facilities.

Jonathan Mays of the Missouri Students Association and other student government leaders proposed a bill requiring students approving fee increases for facilities to help pay for those facilities. Their concerns stem from recent trends where students vote on fee increases that will not directly affect them. Instead, students in successive classes carry the responsibility.

Since 2001, students in campus referendums have approved projects that wouldn’t be billed to the student body until after completions of those projects. Because of that policy, most students who vote to levy a fee never pay any money for the project.

In 2005, more than 6,000 students voted and about 3,880 approved a $35-per-semester fee increase to build a new student center to replace MU’s Brady Commons. At the time, enrollment was about 27,000. With Phase I of the project set to be completed in a few months, the new fee will take effect next semester.

In 2001, with student enrollment at 23,666, more than 4,000 students voted and about 2,690 agreed to bill future students $75 per semester to build a new student recreation complex. The fee didn’t go into effect until 2004.

A bill that was approved at a joint meeting Oct. 1 by MSA, the Legion of Black Collegians and the Residence Halls Associations would require facility fees to be "phase-in" fees, meaning students who approve the fee would be required to pay at least 25 percent of that fee the next fiscal year.

The bill further requires a student referendum to approve a change to the MSA constitution to require a three-fifths majority of voting students to approve any new or increased student fee. The constitution now requires a simple majority of voting students to approve fees. The referendum will be held Nov. 10 through 12, at the same time as the annual MSA presidential election.

The Graduate Student Council discussed the bill at its meeting Tuesday night but tabled any action to further review that council’s constitution, which requires a higher threshold for approval of fees. The graduate council will vote on the measure at its November meeting.

Mays said the proposed policy forces students to be more accountable for their actions.

"When we have a vast majority of students hear that part of the pitch that they won’t have to pay for" the fee, "there’s a lack of responsibility," he said.

Cathy Scroggs, MU vice chancellor for student affairs, presents all student fee referendum results to the UM System Board of Curators. She said the referendums aren’t "binding" until the curators give final approval.

At their February meeting, the curators questioned a proposed fee increase for a new student center on the Kansas City campus. The proposal raises fees $16.75 per credit hour - about $201 per semester for a student taking 12 credit hours - to fund the center. It passed by only a 37-vote margin. The curators questioned the validity of the referendum and approved a smaller increase of $13.75 per credit hour per semester.

Scroggs said referendums at MU have passed by large majorities, and the fee increases haven’t been as significant as at UMKC. However, she said, the new measure on the Columbia campus will show curators that MU students are being thoughtful about their increases, she said.

"I thought it was a real positive move on the part of the students," she said. "It holds students accountable and says, ‘We’re not going to raise fees on future students.’ "

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