Students, faculty and staff could be paying another $5 for their ASB sticker in fall 2018 following a 13-4 vote on Monday, April 30, during the Inter-Club Council (ICC) meeting.
The increase from $10 to $15 is not final but will be proposed to the Board of Trustees and Academic Senate and then voted on by members of the student-government organization Associated Student Organization (ASO) according to ICC Vice President and ASO Student Trustee, Kongdy Lam.
ICC and ASO President Tiffany Ushijima said the price increase is being suggested to “help a long running problem.” That “problem” being a two year long $80,000 deficit.
“We’ve come to a point where we’re either going to cut $80,000 in the budget which impacts a bunch of student programming or we’re going to have to revise,” Ushijima said. “Maybe ASO and ICC get a lesser percentage but even that can’t defray $80,000.”
Lam said that ASB is responsible for dispersing funding to multiple programs on campus. According to El Camino College’s website, ASB is specifically responsible for generating funds for the “athletic departments, the fine arts, Inter-Club Council, the student newspaper, and the student government programs.”
Ushijima said the proposal was initially introduced two meetings ago to the members of ICC but was tabled the previous week and then reintroduced during Monday’s meeting.
At the start of the meeting, Lam decided to place the fee increase higher on the agenda because he knew that the topic was a “priority.”
Over the almost 40-minute discussion, questions were asked of the cabinet from several different club members.
Black Student Union club member Wiley Wilson, 20, asked why the majority of the student population was not being informed of the proposed fee increase.
In response, Lam answered by saying, “What you’re trying to do is have 20,000 students know that (the fee) is going to increase $5 without (us) actually getting it approved.”
Lam said telling the entire student body would “create chaos.”
“You’re letting 20,000 students know what’s going to happen without (it) actually happening,” Lam said.
After the meeting, Wilson noted how some students may not know why the increase was necessary.
“It’s a lot of things that students do not understand and having a budget increase yes, some students are going to be angry because they don’t know what their student government is basically responsible for; what they do actually,” Wilson said.
Another opposer of the proposal was Stefanie Friedrichsen, 26, who felt as though the fee increase was not fair to other students not involved with clubs.
“I personally don’t agree (with the proposal) because the majority of the students aren’t involved in clubs so I don’t think it’s fair that they have to pay for other students who are in clubs to do things,” Friedrichsen said after the meeting.
However, according to the ECC website, programs including the “athletic departments, the fine arts, Inter-Club Council, the student newspaper, and the student government programs” are also sponsored by ASB.
The Union was not able to contact Gregory Toya, Director of Student Development. Rudi Lopez, Administrative Assistant to Toya, said that the director was busy in meetings all day, and would not be able to comment by print deadline. Breanna von Stein, Student Services Specialist at the Student Development Office, said that as a general rule she is unable to give interviews with The Union without prior approval from the director.
Lam said that he wanted to come to the ICC members in order to “not be shady” about the proposal of a price increase.
“We want to be transparent to all of the departments,” Lam said. “ICC was the first stop for (a) student voice.”
ASO will be voting on whether the price increase will be put in place in “2 to 3 weeks,” Lam said.
