The student activities fee, which funds the activities of clubs at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, will increase by $35 for the first time in 20 years following a referendum held by the United Student Government at Lincoln Center (USGLC). The voting process took place over email and the measure passed 383-150, according to USGLC.
All undergraduate students at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus pay the student activities fee, which is currently $105 each year, as a part of their tuition bill. The funds raised from the fee are appropriated by the Student Activities Budget Committee (SABC) to student-run organizations throughout the year, which now total $105,000 allocated specifically to student clubs and their activities.
Bianca Ortega, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’25 and former chair of SABC, said that the committee has struggled to allocate funding to the ever-growing number of student organizations on campus in recent years due to enrollment increases and inflation.
“All of those things together — more people and everything costing more money — just signaled that we don’t have enough funds,” she said.
Ortega added that she chose not to vote in the referendum because she is currently studying abroad in London and does not “have all the insights on how club events are going and how the funding is being used.”
Jenifer Campbell, dean of students at Lincoln Center, emphasized that the increased student activities fee will allow SABC to facilitate more requests than has previously been the case due to the increase in available funding. She highlighted, though, that the process of requesting funding has not changed.
Campbell noted that SABC attempts to meet the needs of all student clubs and does not “theorize” about the potential success or failure of an event. She added that she does not anticipate a problem of club leaders being “overzealous” and said clubs will “not just get first dibs on anything.”
“All of those things together — more people and everything costing more money — just signaled that we don’t have enough funds,”Bianca Ortega, GSBLC ’25 and former chair of SABC
USGLC announced the referendum on March 15 in an email to all undergraduate students. The message was authored by Tanzema Qureshi, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’24 and president of USGLC, and characterized the referendum as a “historic action” noting that “this money is guaranteed to go back to YOU, meaning more free food for you, more free outings for you, more free on-campus events for you, more for YOU!”
Qureshi contacted club leaders on March 16 encouraging them to both vote in favor of the referendum and to urge their membership to do the same. Her email also invited clubs to “endorse” the referendum, highlighting an assortment of clubs that had already done so.
The USGLC president noted that the aim of these club endorsements was “to facilitate a personable community relationship with the clubs on campus.” She added that “an increasing number of clubs voluntarily responded with their endorsements after each email I sent!”
Jason Bonner — FCLC ’25, president of Classics Club and treasurer of Quiz Bowl — said he decided to support the referendum in response to USGLC’s explanation that the student activities fee is “one of the only parts of our tuition that we can track where it’s going.”
“If SABC is selective in terms of allocating funds to well thought out and purposeful events, then student leaders come up with new and more innovative event ideas.”Vishesh Chawla — GSBLC ’25, founder and president of GLOBE, and former executive vice president of the commuting students association
During general meetings for both Classics Club and Quiz Bowl, Bonner said he delivered the presentation that had been shared with club leaders by USGLC. He noted that after hearing positive feedback from club members and discussing with his fellow editorial board members, he decided to issue an official endorsement on behalf of both of his clubs.
The endorsements of Bonner’s clubs were announced alongside those of various other student organizations in a series of emails and Instagram posts by USGLC during the voting period. Other clubs on the endorsement list included Arabic Club; PRISM, the LGBTQ+ students club; and GLOBE, the international students club.
Vishesh Chawla — GSBLC ’25, founder and president of GLOBE, and former executive vice president of the commuting students association — said that his club was included on the list of endorsing clubs without E-Board consent.
“GLOBE was never in support of the referendum,” Chawla said. “After a detailed discussion with the executive board GLOBE like some big clubs chose a neutrality standpoint … this was communicated well to USG.”
Chawla also said that he did not personally support the referendum because he felt it would lead to further wasteful spending on the part of clubs.
“If SABC is selective in terms of allocating funds to well thought out and purposeful events, then student leaders come up with new and more innovative event ideas,” he noted. “That just doesn’t happen if every event around us starts getting approved.”
Qureshi said the error was isolated to the email to club leaders and was “fortunately not done in any university-wide emails, any instagram posts or student body-wide email announcements.” She further expressed that USGLC “respects GLOBE’s neutral stance.”
With the increased student activities fee, Ortega speculated that future SABC proceedings will be “a little bit less stressful” since the committee will be able to be “more flexible and optimistic,” though she expressed concern that increased club requests would lead to the committee ending up “in the same pickle.”
