By Vanessa Greco
Residence students elected to nearly double an annual fee in a referendum on Nov. 16.
Starting in Sept. 2010, roughly 838 students arriving to residence will pay $41 for the Ryerson Residence Council — a student-run organization representing all Ryerson housing tenants.
Eighty-five per cent of residence students who voted in the referendum were in favour of the $18 fee increase, according to Sean Carson, president of the rez council.
“Previously the fee had been very small,” said Carson adding that more funding will allow Ryerson’s Residence Council to run a larger operation with more high-profile events and services available to students.
In addition to the higher fee, next year rez council fees will be indexed for the first time. This means when general residence costs rise the council fee will rise with them.
Chad Nuttall, student housing manager, believes that more residence council funding was sorely needed.
“It does sound like a dramatic, big increase, but really we’re off-setting years of not increasing fees,” he said.
According to Nuttall, over the past few years the cost of buying materials and putting on events has continued to rise while the council fee remained static.
Miriam Ben Jannet voted yes in the referendum. The first-year business management student doesn’t think $41 is too much to ask for.
“Unless the students do it…nothing’s going to happen,” she said.
Leave a Reply