Ohio University’s Marching 110 has moved up one slot on the list of the General Fee Advisory Committee’s top four priorities for the upcoming academic year.
This year, the committee ranked the Marching 110 third on the list behind the Division of Student Affairs and Intercollegiate Athletics.
A graduate student General Fee “buy-down” is listed as fourth on the list. The buy-down would reduce general fees for graduate students.
The committee decided to list the Marching 110 as its third priority because it “consistently brings excitement to (OU) athletic events and on a national stage,” according to the committee’s report.
Student Affairs is the top priority on the General Fee committee’s list because it “impacts every student and is a significant entity that greatly helps with retention and development of (OU) students,” the report states.
This year, OU students each paid $419 per quarter into the General Fee pool. The General Fee funds non-academic units at OU.
At its April meeting, OU’s Board of Trustees approved a 3.5 percent increase in tuition and fees for next year. All of that increase, however, could go to the General Fund pool, which includes tuition and finances academic investments.
“It is still to be determined if the General Fee will get an increase next year,” said John Day, associate provost for academic budgeting.
The General Fee Advisory Committee also proposed funding five other investments if the fee pool were to see an increase in revenue.
“The units we came for were those that had a lot of recommendations, ones that were going to have best impact on students here at OU,” said Kyle Triplett, Student Senate president and chairman of the advisory committee. “We made those recommendations thinking those initiatives would have the biggest impact on the student experience.”
The investments include: replacing instruments for the Marching 110; funding for the future multipurpose facility; funding for the Bobcat Readership Program, which brings newspapers such as USA Today and The New York Times to campus free for students; integrating Career Services into Student Affairs; and funding for student minimum wage increases.
“Depending on how much new revenue is available, there may be some new initiatives that the committee takes on,” Triplett said. “The committee put together a list of recommendations and if there is money next year, we’d consider recommending these.”
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