Starting next September, all arts and science students will be levied a $5 opt-outable fee.
The decision was made at last week’s Arts and Science Undergraduate Society (ASUS) annual general meeting when Kyle Abrey, ASUS vice-president, put forth the motion.
“It was felt that a $5 opt-outable fee would not financially inconvenience students and yet is high enough to provide considerable financial benefit to ASUS,” he said in an e-mail to the Journal, adding that the mandate for the fee is broad to allow flexibility for future developments within ASUS.
“[The spending] is up to next year’s executive,” he said. “The new opt-out fee could also be advertised in our monthly newsletter as well as through the mass listserv e-mail which we send out monthly.” At assembly, Abrey said the fee will help develop new services for ASUS in the next four to five years.
Engineering students have an opt-outable fee of $60 and commerce students have a fee of $50.
The ASUS mandatory fee is $20.02. The applied science mandatory fee is $40.80, commerce students pay $45 and kinesiology and health sciences students pay $27.
Some Assembly members said they didn’t agree with the process of creating an opt-outable fee at Assembly without asking students through referendum.
“[The fee] should not be swung upon people at this meeting. We’re deciding for next year’s class,” said Dhiraj Dhanjani, ASUS rep to the AMS.
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