Proposed Student Technology Fee Hike, New Senator Appointed – The Nevada Sagebrush

A new senator, two bills and a presentation on a significant tuition hike for technical colleges are scheduled for a busy Sept. 4 meeting of the University of Nevada, Reno Student Association Senate.

The Senate is comprised of students elected from each college and meets in the Rita Laden Senate Chamber on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m.

Could engineering tuition fees double next year?

Three representatives from the university administration for technology and the library came to the senate meeting on September 4 to present a proposal for technology tuition fees.

Students currently pay an additional six dollars per credit hour toward the regular technology fee, which covers university computers, classroom updates, software, and other technical programs. They also pay an additional three dollars per credit hour toward the iNtegrate technology fee, which powers the MyNevada registration platform.

The university’s libraries and information technology office are set to go before the Board of Regents, the governing body of the Nevada System of Higher Education, in December to double technology fees, according to a presentation.

This would mean that starting in fall 2025, students who paid a total of nine dollars per credit hour for college technology this year would see their costs increase to $18 per credit hour.

ASUN has not been given the authority to vote on this proposed fee –– nor will it go to students on the next ASUN vote. Instead, two ASUN representatives serve on an advisory board that offers feedback on the proposal: Liesel Kemmelmeier, ASUN vice president, and Gabriella Detrick, ASUN executive director.

Sasi K. Pillay, the university’s vice president for information technology, told the senate the fee would help the university’s technology keep up with rising costs.

“Since we haven’t had a student technology fee increase since 2017, the costs have continued to rise and the two main reasons are the labour costs, across all salaries, the full 23% (of the cost of living adjustment increase introduced by the government last year) is covered by the student technology fee… and the second factor is the cost of software. The vendors that we are dependent on; they usually increase their prices by 5-6% per year and we have to pay,” Pillay said.

Pillay added that of the approximately 300 outdated public computers the university needs to replace, only 60 to 70 have been replaced this year.

Catherine Cardwell, Dean of the Library, raised the issue of potentially controversial new additions to the software suite provided by the university.

“We weren’t able to respond to any new requests,” Cardwell said. “They (students) were talking about this tool that I didn’t know about, Quizlet: it’s an AI-based tool that lets you study. We know that there’s terrible AI out there, but we also know that there’s AI that has to prepare you for work.”

PIllay also proposed using an AI-powered math tutor as a solution to the university’s problems in providing first-year students with their first math classes.

Ed Huffman, executive director of the Office of Digital Learning, named the university’s largest technology bill yet — but did not disclose the amount.

“The biggest cost for us is the cost of Canvas, which has been going up every year,” Huffman said. “The tech fee hasn’t.”

Swearing in of new College of Science senator

Natalie Palmer, the only one of the three candidates to show up at the September 4 meeting and announce her candidacy, is the new College of Science senator, joining Emma Doty, Vera Vaz and Camille Levy.

In her presentation, Palmer highlighted her involvement in campus life, her use of resources like the Tutoring Center and the unique challenge of representing a group of students who, she said, “from my perspective, don’t feel like they’re part of a community; their workload is making them incredibly stressed.”

Palmer began his career as an intern at ASUN and then worked in event programming.

Doty noted in a question after the presentation that College of Science senators had trouble reaching Louisa Hope-Weeks, dean of the College of Science, last year. Palmer responded that she would persist in trying to set up regular meetings.

After Palmer’s presentation, the Senate considered her possible appointment. The vote was nearly unanimous, with only College of Liberal Arts senator Joel Martin abstaining.

Rena Arneson, President of the Supreme Court of the ASUN, swore in a new senator.

Two bills go through quickly

Two bills that came to the Senate from the Government Operations Committee were given a quick debate.

The first was “An Act to Remove the Veterans Services Liaison from the IDEA Committee,” authored by Doty and Leaf Acklin, senators from the College of Liberal Arts. Previously, there had been a liaison to the University’s Veterans Services office on both the IDEA Committee and the Democratic Civic Engagement Committee. The bill proposed to remove the position from the IDEA Committee, leaving only one on the other committee.

Senate President Aween Ali said she previously held a liaison position with the Commission on Democratic Civic Engagement and that holding both positions had hindered plans for Veterans Services.

“The UNR Lake Tahoe Campus Enhancement Act by the Director of Executive Outreach” was authored by Ethan Lawler, Senator for the College of Education, and Acklin. The Director of Executive Outreach has been given the responsibility to act as the primary liaison to the Lake Tahoe campus.

Carmina Aglubat, president pro tempore of the Senate, praised the bill.

“This is our third attempt at getting Lake Tahoe represented and I feel like we finally hit the jackpot.”

Both bills were adopted unanimously.

The meeting ended at 20:03

Peregrine Hart can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Instagram @pintofperegrine.