The University Fee Review Committee is now using prerecorded presentations from parties requesting fee increases. These presentations will replace all but the final committee meeting, at which the members will vote on the proposed fee increases.

The decision to eliminate the remaining meetings does not allow for a reasonable public debate about student fees. Despite prior issues, moderated town hall meetings would best inform students of what fees they pay and why they may be increasing

Greg Doucette, Student Senate president, said the decision allots blocks of time for the various organizations to record their requests with WolfBytes. Organizations are also allowed to presubmit PowerPoint presentations to supplement their requests. Students will now submit feedback via e-mail.

Allowing various organizations to use prepared presentations to support their fee increase requests will prevent an active debate that allows people to immediately question the rationale behind fee increases. Doucette and Student Body President Jay Dawkins, both of whom are members of the Fee Review Committee, admit recording these presentations in advance eliminates any chance at catching quick flaws in the proposal.

Doucette said this measure gives up the element of surprise with the hopes of using the e-mail records as leverage to deny future fee increase requests to organizations that said further increases would be unnecessary.

This sort of information should already be present in the minutes from previous fee meetings. While videotaping the meetings benefits students, this “compromise” does not secure anything they did not already have. Worse, there is no guarantee that the various organizations requesting a fee increase or committee members will listen to student feedback, and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Tom Stafford is responsible for controlling the e-mail feedback system.

Open meetings are the ideal place to address fee increases. Doucette said previous efforts to hold town hall meetings ended in 2004, as the debates turned into heated arguments that did little to address which organizations needed additional funding.

If that is the case, then the meetings simply need to be moderated, videotaped and made available for online access. Dawkins said town hall forums are not in consideration, but if students were interested in these meetings, then he would push for them.

Fee increases matter. Students deserve to know where every penny they pay is budgeted, and pushing for an open public discussion of student fees is a vital step in reducing wasteful spending.