Members of the Services and Activities Fee Committee voted to increase the fee from $540 to $559, hoping this 3.5% increase will offset declining enrollment rates and rising inflation.

The Board of Regents will vote on this increase at the end of the semester, officially setting the fee rate for the 2022-23 school year. 

Nineteen WSU Pullman groups requested a total of nearly $13 million from S&A Fee revenue this year. The committee approved nearly $10 million worth of allocations, citing an interest in building back the reserve funds that were depleted by the pandemic. 

Committee members voted to fully fund groups that maintained their requested amount from last year, while they approved a 4.4% cut for groups that requested an increase in their allocation. 

The following groups received their full funding request:

• ASWSU Senate requested and received $120,500.
• WSU Children’s Center requested and received $404,516. The committee noted that this funding should be prioritized to serve children of WSU students and not children of faculty or community members. 
• Cougar Accessible Transportation Services requested and received $75,000.
• Disability Awareness, a group housed within the Access Center, requested and received $33,500.
• Health Promotion, a group housed within Cougar Health Services, requested and received $271,929.
• Student Media requested and received $230,216.
• Transit requested and received $538,650.

The following groups received a 4.4% deduction from their full funding request:

• The ASWSU Executive budget received $258,063 after the cut, plus a one-time allocation of $25,000 to support a University Recreation parking initiative. This totals $283,063.
• ASWSU Programming received a total of $368,088 after the cut.
• Center for Civic Engagement received a total of $301,916 after the cut.
• Coalition for Women Students received a total of $177,956 after the cut.
• Compton Union Building received a total of $1,614,056 after the cut, plus a one-time allocation of $210,000. This totals $1,824,056.
• Cougar Marching Band received a total of $214,522 after the cut.
• GPSA received a total of $526,555 after the cut.
• Student Entertainment Board received a total of $432,675 after the cut.
• Student Engagement Services, a group under Student Involvement, received $934,514 after the cut. 
• University Recreation received $1,530,739 after the cut, a one-time allocation of $64,000, and $182,500 for capital projects. This totals $1,777,239. The capital projects allocation is earmarked for a bond to fund a resurfacing project at the Valley Road Playfields. 

Athletics requested a one-time allocation of $400,000, but the committee approved a $200,00 one-time allocation. Alexander Pan, committee chair and ASWSU vice president, said previous committees planned to remove Athletics from the S&A funding groups by 2025. Reducing the amount from the $300,000 Athletics requested last year aligns with that goal. 

Veterans Affairs requested a total of $348,400. The committee approved $13,800 plus a one-time allocation of $100,000. Committee members hope the university, not student fees, will fund this group, Pan said. This is the first year Veterans Affairs has received S&A funding. 

Additional reporting by Sam Taylor and Elena Adair.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect a factual inaccuracy. Enrollment rates, not tuition rates, have been declining.