During the board of directors meeting on Nov. 20, the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union announced that they currently have $96,000 more than was projected for the 2009-10 budget due to higher revenues and lower expenses.
While it is still unknown if WLUSU will end the year with a surplus, this finding makes a case for student union fees being too high.
Student fees are approximately $50 per academic year, which the union depends upon along with the revenue from their businesses, such as the Terrace, Turret, Wilf’s and Centre Spot.
This year, there didn’t seem to be any excessive, unnecessary capital expenditures made by the union (something that happens all too frequently) –unless the various renovations undertaken are counted – which shows that if money is spent responsibly, there is no need to have fees so high on such a small campus.
If the students’ union is going to operate like a business – which should not be the goal of a students’ union in the first place – they should begin to depend solely on the money they are bringing in from their businesses.
Students already spend substantial amounts of their money at WLUSU-run businesses. With the increased amount of students on campus, they are experiencing even higher profits than in the past.
The students’ union needs to reconsider fees for next year, as a cut in student union fees appears to be a feasible goal.
