The Student Senate took three criteria into account while considering the results of the student fee referenda leading to its vote to encourage the fee review committee to approve the $83 fee increase for the Student Center Expansion fee which 61.6 percent of voters opposed.

According to Resolution 22, the Student Senate chose to evaluate the data collected in the referenda based on three criteria: whether students see a need for increased funding for a respective project or service, whether students expressed a particular fee is a top priority among all other proposed fee increases and whether a majority of students voted in support of at least partial funding of a proposed fee increase.

Student Senate President Kelli Rogers said the inclusion of the three questions on the referenda informed students that all of their answers would be taken into consideration.

“That’s how the questions were on the referenda. That’s the three ways we were assessing support on the fee,” Rogers said. “If they read the whole referenda, then they knew there were three questions.”

Rogers said the tuition and fees committee determined the three criteria would be what the Senate used to evaluate the referenda. Rogers assured she and the committee worked hard to assure no bias was given to any fee.

Tuition and Fees Commitee Chair Jake Bloodworth could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Rogers said objectively wording the referenda in a way so students ranked the most important issues to them was difficult, especially since the instant runoff process was used.

“It doesn’t give you what’s most important to every student,” Rogers said. “It tells you, when comparing to what all other students said, this is what students would prefer.”

Rogers said the tuition and fees committee did consider looking into a smaller fee, but saw construction would be delayed by two years.

“The first-year fee would have to be financed for so long it would delay construction for two years,” Rogers said. “They had the other options and looked at it.”

Rogers said previously her stance on the Talley Student Center fee would be determined by the referenda, and she maintains she sought to represent students as best she could according to the criteria.

“I looked at the other options as well,” Rogers said, referring to the smaller fees and longer delays in construction. “I voted with the [56.6] percent of students that said it was a need.”