SGA president Calvin Stafford and SGA adviser Laura Knotts went to a board meeting in Baton Rouge to get approval for the Student Activity Support Fee referendum. The referendum was approved on Feb. 26 and will go to the students for a vote in April.

This referendum will consolidate the 18 fees under the Student Assessed Fee into one fee and will add $60 to the cost of the fee.

Students already pay $242.45 a semester under the Student Assessed fee. Students will be paying $302.45 a semester if the referendum passes.

With the fee increase, this sets aside money to benefit any RSO and on-campus service. They will get no less than what they are initially supposed to get, but now have the chance to get more money to support their activities by submitting a budget to a committee of students.

According to Knotts, this can double the money they will hold because they are not dropping any current support that the students previously wanted.

“Not only would band, spirit groups, the library and all of the people who are currently getting money still get money, we would have an additional pool to pull from,” Knotts said. “They will be able to submit a very detailed budget to a committee. The vice president will be on it, but the voting comes from students. It is students deciding what to do with student money.”

Stafford hinted to the possibility of another athletic referendum in the future.

“A couple of board members came up to me afterwards and said we did a really good job and they’re really proud,” said Stafford. “They actually encouraged us to do an athletic referendum, but that won’t be happening. At least not now.”

Referendum meetings took place Feb. 27 and 28 in the conference room. During these meetings, each senator, one by one, explained the referendum to Stafford as though he knew nothing about it, “just like any other student since the students wouldn’t know anything about it.”

After the referendum meeting, the senate went to the SUB and around campus to talk to students and explain to them the benefits of the referendum.

According to Stafford, “most people won’t have an idea of what [the referendum] really means,” and they will be doing something similar every week.

Stafford said that he thinks in the past the student body and the senate have not completely understood the referendum. He wants to make sure that his senate has a full understanding and can properly inform the student body.

“The majority of the schools in our system are putting referendums up for vote this semester,” Knotts said.  “Ours was by far the least expensive of any of the referendums being put together.”