Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1984 [PAGE 241]

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232

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[May 19

Tuition Adjustment for the Study-Abroad Program in France

(10) Last year, the Board of Trustees approved Range I V tuition for students from the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses enrolled in study-abroad programs at the Federal Pedagogical Academy in Lower Austria at Baden, the University of Barcelona (Spain), the Konan University (Japan), and the University of Dijon (France). A similar program will be conducted at the University of Paris (France) in the fall of 1983. It is recommended that students enrolling in this program also be assessed tuition at the Range IV level, thus giving this program the same status as the others. The chancellors at the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses have recommended approval. I concur.

On motion of Mr. Hahn, this recommendation was approved. Assessment, Student Residence Halls, Urbana

(11) On May 19, 1971, the Board of Trustees authorized a mandatory assessment of $4 per semester, as a part of the residence hall contract, for the educational, social, cultural, and recreational needs of the undergraduate students living in residence halls at Urbana-Champaign. The chancellor now proposes that this assessment be increased to $8 per semester for all undergraduate students who live in residence halls. The proposal was initiated by the Residence Hall Association (RHA), the student governance body in the halls, and was ratified unanimously by RHA on November 4, 1982. The residence hall presidents unanimously endorsed the proposal on November 9, 1982. The hall councils also are unanimous in their support of the proposal. Promoted by the residence hall student government groups prior to the end of the fall semester, a referendum taken on check-in day for the second semester failed. The method and timing were thought to be faulty, and a second referendum was scheduled in which 39.7 percent of residence hall students voted. The proposal to increase the assessment was approved by 62.4 percent of those who voted.1 In one residence area (Illinois Street) the proposition was defeated. In all other residence areas the proposal passed by margins ranging from 55.0 to 74.5 percent. The director of housing and vice chancellor for student affairs have endorsed the proposal. The justification of the increase is as follows: 1. Inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the current assessment. 2. The governing units in the residence halls have increased the range and number of programs and services offered to students. 3. The increase will provide dependable financial support for RHA. A joint committee of students and staff will review budget and program proposals and will recommend allocations to the director of housing. The funds collected will be administered in accordance with guidelines established by the Board of Trustees in the May 1971 action approving residence-hall dues. The current recommendation does not meet the following stipulation, made in the board's action of 1971: A. This assessment and its administration shall be subject to the approval of the University Board of Trustees and to student resident approval in an initial referendum held in a manner approved by the chancellor or his designee. Approval of any proposal by such referendum shall be obtained upon a majority vote of the resident students voting in that referendum, provided also that a majority of the resident students vote.

' T h e original proposition was approved in a referendum in March 1971. Of the 4,129 residents voting (54.1 percent of the total population), 3,325 (80.5 percent) approved of the assessment.