Senate discusses placing programming fee on ballot

A busy night for the Illinois Student Senate included questions about programming for women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

A resolution authored by student senators Dan Weber and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, both students in LAS, supports a measure to include the programming within the current cultural programming fee.

The fee already helps to promote African American, Latino/Latina, Native American, and Asian American programming, but would be increased to $3 per semester.

Although the senate took no action on the item Wednesday, it would be placed on the fall 2009 ballot as a referendum.

"Expanding this cultural programming fee to include women and LGBT students is just a first step towards having a women's center and LGBT house on our campus," said Weber. "It's a long-term goal we're hoping to organize for 2009."

There were some concerns that the creation of a multicultural center on campus, as discussed by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Renee Romano during Wednesday night's meeting, would stifle representatives of different cultural centers.

"Members of the administration keep looking at the University of Michigan where they have grouped cultural houses under one body," said student senator Jason Webber. "I think it's important that each cultural house have an independent voice."

The discussion by Romano ended with an assurance that the administration's intention was not to distill separate concerns from each cultural house, but questions still remained.

"Different factions can't always agree on an issue," Webber said, referring to a possible collective of various cultural houses. "It just seems like the administration would find it easier to stifle concerns if they came from only one source."

The Illinois Student Senate meets every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the Pine Lounge of the Illini Union.