Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 1/11/08 Section: Headlines

IFC meets for the first time in 2008. From left to right Chelsey Miller, Kevin Dugan, Waylon Buchan, Nicole Seery, Tashia Pettyjohn, and Catarina Cortese.

It may seem confusing to think about where all the student fee money actually goes. Each full-time student spent just under $200 on student fees this year. The decision of where to spend this money falls into the hands of the Incidental Fee Committee (IFC). The IFC budget is based on two things: student fees, and the number of students enrolled in excess of the projected number.

Currently this money is distributed to ten departments. This term IFC will be deciding how to spend the extra funds for the 2008-2009 school year.

The different departments that the IFC currently fund are: Access (interpreting and disability services), ASWOU, Athletics, Childcare (discounted rate for student parents), Creative Arts, Campus Recreation, Student Leadership and Activities (student employees and traditional activities such as the Tree Lighting), Student Media (the Western Oregon Journal, Northwest Passage and WSTV), Travel (for student clubs and organizations) and the Werner University Center (WUC).

About 60 percent of the funds end up financing the WUC and school athletics.

If a student is interested in having a say where their money is actually going they have options. One way students can get involved is by joining one of the IFC sub-committees. The IFC sub-comittees are small groups that review the budgets of funded areas in detail and make recommendations to the IFC for next year's budget based on their findings.

IFC Chair Adam Bernot says that while the sub-committees do not have the power to allocate IFC funds, they in some ways have a greater impact on their funded area other than the IFC itself. "I say this because they review their area in great detail and will make a recommendation to IFC that has tended to be passed with few or no changes, "said Bernot.

Another way to get involved would be to attend their open hearings next month. Any student is allowed to attend these meetings and give their opinion on how their money should be spent or not spent. Beginning this month the IFC will meet weekly in the Oregon Room of the WUC at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. Times and dates for the open hearings will be announced in the near future on posters in the WUC and in all-student e-mails.

Though student input is welcomed, the general student body does not have complete control over the money. After the IFC sets its final budget it is sent for approval to the ASWOU Senate, to the President of the University and to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. Bernot claims that "students have a great deal of control over the money, provided they comply with all applicable laws and policies that govern IFC and the expenditure of government funds."

If a student wants to get more involved and join a committee, they have three ways of doing so. Students can either be elected in the Spring at the same time as the ASWOU elections, be appointed by the student body president or be appointed by the President of the University. Three are selected in each method, creating the committee of nine.•

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