Features Editor
The Campus Fee Advisory Committee called to order their meeting on April 19 at 11:04 a.m. to discuss the raising of the technology fee and MyWritingLabPlus fee for students.
In regards to the technology fee, the fee was proposed by Associate Vice President of Information Technology Services and CIO, Faust Gorham.
The proposal urged the increase of the Instructional Related Activities Campus Fee for the purpose of replacing aging computers in smart classrooms, instructional television studios, and computer labs.
The fee would also periodically cover refreshing computer labs and printers throughout the campus. With the approval of a $32 fee for students, 760 computers and printers in computer labs would be replaced every four years.
“Its pretty good,” said freshman English major Nataly Perez. “It’s more advanced in some classes than others.”
Though a majority of the panel on the Campus Fee Advisory Committee are students from the Associated Students Inc., not many of CSU Bakersfield students were aware of the raising of these fees or who the Campus Fee Advisory Committee is.
“I would probably just blindly pay it like most people do,” junior biology major James Mauldin said. “[Technology] gets the job done. I don’t see why it needs to be improved.”
“Overall, I’m content with what we have,” Mauldin said, only noting that he would like to see more charging stations for cell phones.
The motion to raise the technology fee from $3 dollars to $12 a semester was seconded and failed.
There were several motions to raise the fee by $4 for the next four years until the fee is at $25, which would allow for stability in technology over the next four years. This motion was seconded and failed.
A motion was also made to raise the technology fee to $15 per semester with no increases added to the fee over the years unless a new proposal is submitted and discussed in front of the committee. The motion was seconded and approved.
“I like technology. I feel like it helps reduce some stress,” said sophomore psychology major Jessica Banuelos. “But when technology fails, it really sucks. I think with all the money that CSUB pours in, I don’t think we should have all those extra fees.”
The proposal to raise the technology fee is still at the discretion of President Horace Mitchell, who can still approve, reject or modify the fee in question.
