During the Minnesota Student Association’s final meeting of the year, David Kraft and Kyle Kroll presented the results of the Student Services Fees Review Task Force formed in October.

A task force has been formed every five years since 2001 to assess issues with the student fees process and address changes that need to be made.

This year was the first full-scale review of the student fees process since 2005. A smaller scale assessment was completed in the summer of 2010 in response to a charge from Vice Provost for Student Affairs Jerry Rinehart.

Some of the task force’s proposed changes include increased participation from alternates, adding an opportunity for personal appeals and increasing stipends for committee members by $250. 

A proposed change to appeals recommends that groups that submitted their fees application past the deadline should have the chance to appeal to the SSF Appeals Committee after the due date. If the appeals committee rejects the initial appeal, late applicants would be restricted from appealing to the same committee after final recommendations are made, but they could appeal to Rinehart at the end of the process.

The review task force also recommended student groups have a minimum request of $3,000.

Kraft said that if a group has a funding request of less than $3,000 they could seek funding elsewhere, particularly MSA or Student Unions and Activities grants.

There will be a consultative process over the next two weeks to review the proposed changes before making final recommendations to Rinehart.

If approved, the changes will go into effect next year.