Cost to double fee? One dollar

Arizona Students' Association seeks to raise fee for lobbying, voter efforts

 by Andre Radzischewski
 published on Friday, March 28, 2008

A buck could add up to thousands of dollars if students let the Arizona Students' Association tag an extra $1 onto their tuition bills.

The organization's budget would double in the fall if voters approved a ballot measure raising the ASA fee from $1 to $2 in the student government election held at ASU's Tempe campus March 31 and April 1.

Students at UA and NAU already approved the measure in their student government elections, as did students at ASU's West campus on March 26, said ASA Board Chair Lindsay Bayuk.

"With this increased fee, there's just so much more that we can do," Bayuk said.

One of ASA's biggest accomplishments is its lobbying work to keep tuition and other factors contributing to the cost of attendance low, said Executive Director Serena Unrein.

The organization also registered 10,000 students to vote in the last four years, Unrein said, and helped put two student regents on the Arizona Board of Regents — the governing body of Arizona's state universities.

Founded in 1974, ASA was funded by ABOR for the first 23 years of its existence, Unrein said.

Beginning in 1997, the organization decided to finance itself through student fees instead, Unrein said.

Bayuk said ASA is promoting the fee increase with a grassroots campaign across the Tempe campus.

"Look what we have done with $1," Bayuk said she tells students. "Think what we can do with $2."

Finance sophomore Alejandra Suárez she supports the increase.

"It's just a dollar," she said.

Suárez said she doesn't know much about ASA's mission, but liked its efforts to make textbooks more affordable by encouraging the use of older editions and fighting "bundling" — selling books with add-on materials.

Finance junior Adam Markovich said, though he feels ASA has not been successful at keeping the University from raising tuition, he supports the proposed fee increase.

"A dollar? Yeah, I'd give it a shot," Markovich said.

Reach the reporter at: andre.f.radzischewski@asu.edu.