At Friday morning’s Associated Student Senate meeting, the members discussed a bill to increase the student representation fee for each student an additional $1 per semester.

The fee would go toward supporting the advocacy group, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges.

Student Trustee Nicholas Steil is a strong supporter of this bill and said he would urge the Senate “aggressively” to try and get the bill implemented this year. According to Steil, the group decides how the funds are used, but asks individual college’s Student Government what they would like the group to do for them.

The California Student Senate website states that its mission goal “is to pursue policies that will improve student access, promote student success, engage and empower local student leaders, and enrich the collegiate experience for all California community college students.” It also gathers for statewide meetings to lobby for different student interests, including financial aid and other student support efforts.

The group helped lobby for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) act, and pushed for the passing of this fee increase to gain its own financial income, so it won’t have to rely so heavily on donations.

The senate currently operates on about a $160,000 budget that is mostly made up of donations from California community colleges. If the bill is passed, it would increase the budget to over $4 million per year. In order for a college to accept the increase, the student body has to vote on the increase of the representation fee.

While altogether it is a large sum of money, individually that $1 may not be noticed by most students.

“I don’t mind paying another dollar for a little extra representation,” said City College student Taylor Wick, 18.

Some members of the Senate were hesitant to give over such a large sum of money without knowing exactly what it would be used for. Colette Brown, vice president of senate affairs, was interested in what the money would be used for.

“I’m confused why you guys are asking for all this money, when you don’t know what you want to do with it.”

Due to a lack of time and information, Student Senate President Gracie Maynetto asked that the discussion be moved to next week in order to give the Senate more time to research the group and the bill in question.

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