Fordham University Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) is holding a Student Activities Fee (SAF) Referendum from March 4 to 18. The referendum will decide if the SAF will increase by $95, going from $135 to $230. The fee has not increased in 11 years, in which it went up by $25.
Clubs are funded in two ways: block funding and event funding. Block-funded clubs receive a set amount of money each semester; only 13 clubs are block-funded. Event-funded clubs make up the 151 other clubs on campus; these groups request money on a weekly basis.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if when the referendum passes, there will be more clubs that apply for that block funding status. You would likely see bigger clubs like Outdoors Club and Ski and Snowboard apply for that block funding so that they can guarantee their funding every single semester,” said Vice President of Finance Lucas Hjertberg, FCRH ’26. “Which is something that very much helps when it comes to programming because if you’re trying to program something a semester in advance but you don’t know if you’ll have the funding to do that, things get a little sticky.”
Last spring, USG held the referendum but was unable to get enough student involvement because they used electronic signatures, which require 15% of students to participate. This semester, they are switching to paper signatures, so they only need 10% of students to vote, which amounts to around 600 students.
When they held the referendum last spring, it passed by 70%.
“Our feedback from that was that students agree with the $95 number. It’s just changing the way that we mobilize and campaign to get enough student participation,” said Hjertberg.
The referendum brings in more than $400,000 for both event and block-funded clubs. USG had $848,000 worth of requests during the fall semester and could only allocate $519,000.
“This is one of the very few fees that are left up to the student body to decide what it is. Which gives us a lot of power but also means that we have to act on it when we’re allowed to do that,” said Hjertberg.
For many clubs, this referendum would increase their funds; event-funded clubs could apply to be block-funded and block-funded clubs could increase their funding.
“The student activities fee referendum is important for any student who wants more resources for the clubs they’re involved with. It has been years since the student activity fee increased, and rising costs have made budget allocation difficult for USG, established clubs and new clubs alike,” said Executive President of the Commuter Student Association Hector Cruz, FCRH ’24. “As a student who is unhappy with the steep tuition increases of the past two years, I still strongly support the student activity fee increase because it is a relatively small price in exchange for tangible benefits for student involvement.”
USG is going to have eleven tabling events around campus, and representatives will visit various club meetings. There will be two permanent ballot boxes, one in the second floor McShane Center cafeteria and one on the first floor near Career Student Services. To vote, students have to write their Fordham ID number, email and signature on a ballot.
“When we see a 6% increase in tuition, there isn’t much tangible change that students see; you don’t show up the next semester and be like, ‘this is 6% better,’” said Hjertberg. “This is one of the very few things where you can vote for this to pass and see it immediately.”
