This year, 72.48 percent of students voted to keep the previously used fees, Sotolongo said. (File/The Daily Campus)
University of Connecticut students voted to keep the current $3 per semester fee for organization Nutmeg Publishing during joint elections, according to Nutmeg editor-in-chief Elise Sotolongo.
In the past two elections Nutmeg Publishing, which provides yearbooks and a quarterly magazine to students, proposed a $2 per semester fee increase in order to cover increasing expenses. Students previously voted against the increase, Sotolongo said.
“Almost 50 percent of students supported [fee increases], but because of budget issues we just didn’t think we’d get it,” Sotolongo, eighth-semester english and sociology major said.
“We wanted to put resources back into focusing on the yearbook instead of trying to get fee increases.”
This year, 72.48 percent of students voted to keep the previously used fees, Sotolongo said. She does not think the current price will allow the organization to provide the same resources to students in the future.
“It can’t go on forever without fee increases,” Sotolongo, who will graduate in the spring, said. “[Nutmeg] might have to go digital. It’s kind of just the only option if we can’t pay the publication costs, but hopefully they will be able to get the money somewhere.”
Sotolongo said avoiding future fee increases will have a substantial impact on students.
“The yearbook has been a tradition since [1915] at UConn,” Sotolongo said, “It would be really devastating for that tradition to end if we can’t pay two extra dollars when other organizations get way more.”
*An earlier version of this story was edited. Nutmeg will be keeping their current fee of $3.*
Lillian Whittaker is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at lillian.whittaker@uconn.edu.
