David J. Olender / Photo Editor

About 10 students attended yesterday’s student forum for the Instructionally-Related Activities fee, which was held at 10 a.m. in Aztec Center. Ignacio Prado, Associated Students representative for the College of Arts and Letters, presented students with information about the proposed fee increase.

School officials said the extra $80 per semester would raise money for San Diego State to meet its Title IX requirements, which mandates equal opportunity for male and female athletes.

Several students in the audience pointed out that only 20 percent of the funding would go to helping the university meet its gender equality goals and the remainder of the money will go to the overall athletics program.

“My main concern with this is the way it is being marketed to the student body with this alternative … What is it called again? Alternative consultation?” accounting senior Gagandeep Singh said.

The alternative consultation method is a way for A.S. to meet individually with student organizations on campus and review the complicated information more thoroughly, Prado said.

“The information is best presented in a conversational format,” he said. “We want students to be able to ask questions, so we can answer those questions and have a conversation with them about the information.”

Singh was not satisfied with the method for presenting the information to the student body because of the low attendance draw.

“I’m looking around here and I’m looking around at these student organization meetings and I just don’t see an accurate representation of our student body,” Singh said. “I’m extremely unhappy about what’s going on here.”

Singh wasn’t the only student to weigh in on the possible fee increase.
As president of the rugby team, political science senior Alex Main spoke on behalf of student athletes.

“This will help us a lot. From the perspective of the student athletes, it doesn’t seem like that much money for how much good it will do us,” Main said.
His organization, Main added, is constantly fundraising through golf tournaments and other events, but is also trying to protect its 17-1 record during the past three years and is “very competitive.”

At the end of the presentation, students voted on the proposed IRA fee increase. Six were against the measure, while four students were in favor. A.S. voted last night on whether or not they support the measure, with a majority voting in favor of the fee. The passage of the motion by A.S. did not implement the fee, but rather stood as an official endorsement.

Another presentation open to all students will be held in the Aztec Center Backdoor at 2 p.m. today.