Final votes were made passing all incidental student fee allocation bills through the Oregon State University student senate, following mediation last week between senate representatives and student leadership.

The mediation committee, composed of two members of the Associated Students of Oregon State University senate, two members of the Student Fee Committee, the Student Advisory Board Chair, the SFC Chair, and Senate Chair, reached an agreement on Friday, Feb. 7 and finalized over the weekend, to allow the incidental student fee allocation bills to move forward with some modification.

After much discussion among members of the senate, the vetoes imposed onto the Senate Bills concerning the Memorial Union and Performing Arts were overridden by the senate.

The mediation and deliberation process sets out to allocate student fees towards fee funded units, such as the Memorial Union or Recreational Sports, for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Memorial Union saw a wage increase to $16.95, while the Performing Arts received a wage increase to $17.10. However, the ASOSU did not receive any wage increase, this was done for the purpose of reallocating $25,000 from fund balance to sustainability initiatives.

The mediation process was a necessary step after the initial rejection of the bills, with student leaders and committee members negotiating budget allocations and wage adjustments for various campus departments. The decision to raise wages for the Memorial Union and Performing Arts employees is a reflection of the ongoing efforts to address wage concerns while balancing financial constraints.

However, not all fee funded units saw an increase in wages and were initially vetoed due to an attached decision package which saw to raise base wages to student employees.

In a memo sent to the senate, ASOSU President Audrey Schlotter stated, “if units share with me that they cannot spend the additional funds toward a $17.10 base wage and the senate passes the fee bill, please know that I will be vetoing those fee bills. As President, it is within my responsibility to the students we represent to ensure all collected fees are spent as intended and it does not reflect process integrity if I were to know that the funds being allocated to units were going to ultimately end up in fund balance.”

Furthermore, Schlotter met with Deb Mott, the director of the MU, Leah Hall Dorothy, the executive director of Rec Sports, and Philip Williams, the College of Liberal Arts dean and the applicable budget authority for the Performing Arts Board funded unit.

According to the memo sent by Schlotter, “all three indicated that they could not commit to implementing a $17.10 base wage if ASOSU allocates extra money to them for that purpose.” Schlotter continues, “with this information I cannot in good conscience charge roughly 23,000 Corvallis-based students for a fee that has been expressed openly and honestly can not go to its intended purpose.”

Now, the senate looks forward towards the upcoming election. The senate is currently formulating two bills which seek to address raising the base wages of student-workers along with providing funding towards non-athletic competitive teams, though, this time with a catch. These bills are intended to be on the upcoming ballot for this year’s ASOSU election and it will be in the hands of the student body to vote and reach a democratic decision on these measures.