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UC Santa Barbara Student Affairs is petitioning to get the “Save Student Services” fee on the spring election ballot. If placed on the ballot, students will vote to individually adjust 18 student services fees for inflation, as they are at risk from limited funding.
These fees fund programs including the Children’s Center, the Recreation Center, Counseling & Psychological Services and the Educational Opportunity Program. Nexus file photo
Over the past year, Student Affairs analyzed the use of student fees and found that 18 fees have not increased with a cost-of-living adjustment since their creation, some of which are over 20 years old. These fees fund programs including the University Children’s Center, the Recreation Center, Counseling & Psychological Services and the Educational Opportunity Program.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Suzanne Perkin said that without the cost-of-living adjustment attached to these fees, the buying power of the fees has significantly reduced, leaving departments struggling to fund their services. Perkin emphasized that the services that students voted for are “getting harder and harder for the departments to be able to fulfill.”
Using the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Southern California, Student Affairs calculated the inflationary increase to each fee, which totals to $36.49. The fee initiative also includes an additional student financial aid contribution, or return to aid, which reserves 25% of the total fees for UCSB grants and scholarships. This part of the initiative aims to fully cover the cost of fees for high-need students. With the inflationary increase, return to aid and additional administrative assessment, the total fee increase would be $81.72.
However, the actual increase would be determined after the election, as students will have the opportunity to vote on each of the 18 fees individually.
In order to get the initiative on the ballot, Student Affairs must collect signatures from 15% of undergraduate students and 15% of graduate students, amounting to around 3,500 and 450 signatures, respectively. Alternatively, Student Affairs can and plans to ask the Graduate Student Association (GSA) to approve putting the initiative on the graduate student ballot.
Perkin reports that the Children’s Center, which provides on-campus childcare, was able to pay its expenses and employ around 100 undergraduate teaching assistants for the year with its $3 fee passed in 2006. Now, the center is struggling to cover salaries for one quarter and has had to reduce the number of assistants it employs.
Student Affairs wants to give students the opportunity to have control over their fees, Perkin said.
“Over the years, students have been really generous in what they’ve wanted to fund, but they’ve also benefited hugely from it,” Perkin said.
Perkin emphasized that if this initiative does not make it onto the ballot, or if students do not vote to pass any of the fee increases, student services will be at risk.
“I think the outcome is over time you’ll start to see your services stagnate as well. We’re already seeing that. I think the staff on campus have worked so hard to still be able to provide everything they can provide on a shoestring budget, but we’re at kind of a breaking point right now,” Perkin said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Jan. 22, 2026 edition of the Daily Nexus
