Student Government Association is hoping to get a head start on handling student fees this year. 

While the annual student fees deliberations aren’t until February, SGA is already accepting applications for the Student Fees Committee and hopes to fill all 15 seats this month. 

SGA Director of Public Relations Mackenzie Haas said filling the committee in the fall will allow the organization to better educate committee members about student fees. 

“We think it is a good idea to have a training session, along with background information for the committee to understand the student fees process from start to finish,” she said. 

The Student Fees Committee is responsible for hearing budget recommendations from organizations funded by student fees each spring, as well as making its own recommendations to the Student Senate. If passed by the senate, recommendations are then sent to the university president for final approval.

Each seat on the committee corresponds to one of the 15 voting blocks in the Student Senate, each of which is based on a field of study or other student status. The breakdown is as follows:

• Fine Arts
• Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Underserved
• At-Large
• Applied Studies
• Health Professions
• Veteran
• Returning Adult
• Graduate
• Business
• Engineering
• Freshman
• Honors
• International
• Out-of-State

Applications are due by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11 and can be submitted to the SGA office in RSC room 219. 

From the pool of applicants, Student Body President Kitrina Miller will nominate candidates for each position — subject to approval by the Student Senate.

Haas said SGA hopes to have all committee positions filled and confirmed by the senate by Oct. 16. 

After the committee is filled, Haas said fall training would focus on informing members about the departments and organizations that utilize student fees. 

In the spring semester, training will focus on “specific details and understanding of the fees process,” Haas said. 

“This is beneficial so students are able to make a more informed decision on the delegation of fees that affect a large amount of [groups] on campus.” 

Along with the appointed student positions, this year’s committee will have three non-voting student members: SGA’s President Kitrina Miller, Vice President Michael Bearth and Treasurer Colleen Ostermann. 

All faculty on the committee are non-voting members. 

The previous session of SGA brought major changes to the end-of-the-year student fees process last semester, when it increased the number of student representatives on the Student Fees Committee.

In March, the larger fees committee prioritized student organizations over university departments during deliberations. The result was a 2.5 percent increase to Wichita State’s student fees budget, which allowed nearly full funding to all organizations’ requests. 

The 61st Session’s changes also combined the committee with the now-defunct Educational Opportunity Fund Committee.