The Student Governing Association’s Privilege Fee Committee concluded its debate over raising fee allocations to the Kansas State Counseling Services on Thursday evening with a decision to recommend a recurring five percent increase over the next three years.
“Our main goal tonight is to figure out what we are going to do with Counseling Services,” said Sarah Niederee, committee chair and senior in entrepreneurship.
Niederee said the number one goal of the Counseling Services is to fully fund all staff positions with any increase the committee recommended.
“Because of the decrease in state funding, they actually aren’t fully funding the positions that they already have,” Niederee said.
The committee also recommended all increases in allocations to go toward the hiring of a post-doctoral position to lighten the load of current staff counselors.
“I think everyone in this room wants to provide funding for them to hire a post-doc position, but if we give them the funding for that knowing that it is not their top priority, then there is a risk that they might not hire one,” Jordan Martin, senior in computer science, said.
Dalton Maples, committee member and senior in education, said he thinks raising the current allocations by five percent would be a good use of student money.
“If there is any one thing you can present to the student body when you tell them that we are going to raise their fees, it is mental health because it is a very important issue,” Maples said.
Ryan Kelly, committee member and junior in civil engineering, moved the committee vote to consider increasing the Counseling Services’ privilege fee funding by five percent each year for the next three years.
“When we look at these numbers and we look at their priorities, it seems problematic to me that they need assistance to fully fund positions,” Kelly said. “They asked for five percent, and I think we should give them at least that.”
The motion was passed 7-3.
The Privilege Fee Committee will reconvene tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the SGA conference room in the Center for Student Involvement.
