Hearings to help determine future allotment of student fee money will take place on Wednesday and Thursday at 5 p.m., in the Saguaro Room of El Portal.

The Student Services Fee open board hearings will discuss how best to apportion funds raised through the $80 fee students pay every year. All told, the board will be able to use more than $2 million to fund various proposals from around campus.  

The hearings help determine where the money should be allocated and are overseen by the Student Services Fee Advisory Board, which is a year-round board that ensures the money is spent efficiently toward programs that are beneficial to the Wildcat experience, according to Leo Yamaguchi, the co-chairman of the Student Services Fee Advisory Board and a junior majoring in nutritional and physiological sciences.

The board is made up of four appointed members of the UA Graduate and Professional Student Council, three members from the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, and four student members from various departments. The board is charged with providing student fee recommendations to Melissa Vito, the vice president of student affairs.

She has the “”ultimate say”” as to where the fee goes but takes the recommendations of the board into account when making her final decisions, according to Yamaguchi.

The board meeting is open to the public and the audience will be able to give comments. Department heads and other UA staff affiliated with funding proposals usually attend the hearings to see if their requested programs will be funded, according to Yamaguchi.

Student input is taken into account through the annual Student Services Fee survey that allows the board a direct connection to student opinion, said Yamaguchi.

A professional staff creates and administers the survey to ensure that there are no biases, according to Yamaguchi.  

“”In a time where budgets are tight, students are sensitive to the word fee, because it’s more money that they have to pay out of pocket,”” Yamaguchi said.