The ASWSU Senators unanimously supported a 5% Chinook mandatory fee increase this week after being visited by representatives from the UREC advisory board once again.

The UREC board’s chair, Grant Rickard, along with assistant director Matt Atwell and executive director Joanne Greene provided Senators with a recap of their fee increase proposal which they first proposed on the senate floor last week in order to combat reduced enrollment and increased building costs as a result of inflation.

The Chinook mandatory fee for each student would be increased from $98 to $103 for the fall and spring semesters, and from $59 to $62 for the summer session, Rickard said.

“Our goal is to maximize our service to students, while minimizing the impact it has on the fee,” Rickard said.

The 5% increase will apply to all undergraduate students enrolled on the Pullman campus and will be enacted starting from the 2024–25 school year, Vice President Maccabee Werndorf said.

The UREC advisory board is still expecting to cut around 20 hours per week from the Chinook’s operating schedule, as well as execute a summer closure, even with the implementation of the fee increase, Rickard said.

Greene said that the Chinook’s new reduced hours have not yet been decided.

“We’re working with our UREC advisory board to find out what hours are the highest priority,” she said.

The Senators also heard progress updates from the diversity, inclusion and veterans affairs department, community affairs department, and legislative affairs department.

Community affairs director Sebastian Sanders said that ASWSU met with Pullman city council on Tuesday evening, with some ASWSU Senators in attendance. 

He also summarized the election results from last week and said that one of his goals for the rest of the year is to motivate members of the student body to be more active voters in the city of Pullman.

“We have roughly 37,000 people in Pullman, and about 3,000 or so voted for the mayoral elections,” Sanders said. “So part of my goal is working with you guys to make sure that we have employed this massive election block that we have here.”

The Senators supported the fee increase, but official implementation is still being discussed.

Legislative Affairs Director Colin Bannister, who also works for the Daily Evergreen, told the Senators about the department’s activities in the past month.

Bannister said the department recently met with city council member Francis Benjamin and discussed various legislative priorities for ASWSU.

The Senators moved on to voting on bills. Bill 53-11, which was authored by Senator Kim, proposed a modification to Article 200.2 of the ASWSU bylaws that would prevent ASWSU officers from holding any other official position for the duration of their term, as well as require them to attend crisis prevention training within eight weeks of assuming office.

Bill 53-13 was also authored by Senator Kim and proposed amendments to the duties of the internal committee chair, including attending all committee meetings and being a voting member on the budget council and vice chair of the council.

Bills 53-14 and 53-15 were both authored by Senator Ash and proposed amendatory acts to proceedings regarding financial compensation of the ASWSU president and vice president, as well as specifications regarding campaign materials, respectively.

Bill 53-14 stated that the president and vice president would be paid once per month during their term in office, including over the summer. It also prevents them from earning more than 100% of the undergraduate budget of the school year in which they hold office as determined by the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships on campus.

Bill 53-12 was authored by Senator Ramirez and proposed amendments to the duties of the external chair committee as outlined in the ASWSU bylaws. All of the bills were passed unanimously.

ASWSU meets at 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday in CUB 204.